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X  CERTAIN    DANGEROUS   TENDENCIES 
^^     IN  AMERICAN   LIFE,  AND 
OTHER  PAPERS. 


"Ho 


BOSTON: 
HOUGHTON,  OSGOOD  AND  COMPANY. 

1880. 


A/*^ 


COPTRIGHT,  1880, 

Bt  HODGHTON,  OSGOOD  &  CO. 


All  rights  reterved. 


BITERSrDE,  CAMBRIDGE  : 

^TBREOTYPED    AND    PBINTBD    BT 

H.  0.  HOUGHTON  ADD  COMPANT 


CONTENTS. 


—4 — 

PASI 

Cebtain  Dangebous  Tendencies  in  American  Life  .      I 
The  Nationals,  their  Origin  and  their  Aims        .        51 

Three  Typical  Wobkingmen 77 

Wobkinomen's  Wives 106 

The  Careeb  op  a  Capitalist 141 

Stddy  of  a  New  England  Factoby  Town        .        .      157 

Pbeaching 203 

SiNCEBE  Demagogy 226 


"i»s-i'\ 


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CERTAIN    DANGEROUS    TENDENCIES 
IN   AMERICAN   LIFE. 


The  character  of  our  nation  is  highly  complex. 
It  includes  many  elements,  influences,  and  ten- 
dencies, of  different  degrees  of  strength  and  im- 
portance. In  any  real  survey  of  the  life  and 
thought  of  the  country  the  chief  of  these  qualities 
and  forces  must  be  noted  and  compared  with  each 
other,  and  some  estimate  made  of  their  relative 
significance.  Some  of  the  influences  are  whole- 
some and  vital,  and  tend  to  national  prosperity. 
Others  are  of  the  nature  of  disease,  and  depress 
the  national  strength,  tending,  so  far  as  they  are 
effective,  to  disorder  and  the  decay  of  society.  An 
exact  measurement  of  intellectual  and  moral  ele- 
ments is  of  course  impossible,  but  there  can  be  no 
just  estimate  of  our  national  character  and  ten- 
dencies as  a  whole  which  is  not  based  upon  some 
such  careful  study  and  comparison  of  the  separate 
factors,  some  real  knowledge  of  the  principal  influ- 
ences which,  reinforcing  or  opposing  each  other, 
are  all  included  and  summed  up  in  the  life  and 
thought  of  the  people.  Such  an  examination  has 
1 


2  CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

not  yet  been  attempted,  I  believe,  though  it  would 
be  diflBcult  to  overestimate  the  value  of  the  under- 
taking if  it  should  be  successful ;  that  is,  if  one 
■who  has  observed  widely  and  truly  could  report 
accurately  and  plainly  what  he  has  seen. 

Since  the  civil  war  we  have  had  new  elements 
and  conditions  in  our  national  life,  and  there  have 
been  important  changes  in  the  relative  strength  of 
certain  of  the  old  forces.  We  have  been  confronted 
by  problems  and  dangers  which  we  had  thought 
could  never  arise  in  the  path  of  a  nation  with  in- 
stitutions hke  ours.  Not  only  had  we  come  to  re- 
gard our  system  of  government  as  superior  to  all 
others,  but  we  trusted  still  more  to  that  wonderful 
perfection  and  vitality  of  character  which  we  be- 
lieved ourselves,  as  a  people,  to  possess,  and  which, 
as  we  boasted,  enabled  us  to  receive  from  all  other 
countries  the  most  incongruous  and  unfavorable 
materials,  and  assimilate  and  transmute  them  all 
into  the  texture  and  substance  of  a  noble  national 
life.  We  had  not,  before  the  war,  been  prepared 
•in  any  way  for  the  tasks  or  difficulties  which  we 
have  since  encountered.  We  had  little  practical 
knowledge  of  pauperism  or  the  labor  question. 
Our  politicians  had  but  slight  knowledge  of  polit- 
ical economy,  and  generally  thought  the  study  of 
such  subjects  unnecessary  in  our  country.  They 
knew  little  of  financial  theories  or  methods,  or  of 
the  principles  which  the  long  experience  of  the 
civilized  world  had  established  in  connection  with 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  3 

the  relation  of  government  to  the  money  and  in- 
dustries of  the  people.  Indeed,  the  politicians  of 
those  days  cannot  be  said  to  have  studied  any- 
thing very  deeply  besides  party  politics,  except 
the  slavery  question ;  and  they  were  fond  of  re- 
peating that  history  had  no  lessons  for  us,  and 
that  the  experience  of  other  nations  was  not  in 
any  way  valuable  for  our  guidance.  We  rejoiced 
in  our  exemption  from  the  ills  and  dangers  of 
European  society. 

The  intensity  of  interest  which  the  slavery  ques- 
tion at  last  aroused,  and  the  peculiar  direction 
which  it  gave  to  the  thought  of  our  people,  left  no 
time  or  vitality  for  matters  pertaining  to  the  sci- 
ence of  government.  That  agitation  unavoidably 
exaggerated  the  sentimental  character  which  al- 
ready marked  our  politics,  and  gave  them  an  im- 
pulse toward  humanitarian  and  intuitive  methods 
which  has  not  yet  spent  its  force.  The  war  de- 
stroyed hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of 
property,  and  the  government  was  compelled  to 
borrow  some  two  thousand  millions  of  dollars  to 
enable  it  to  continue  the  struggle  and  maintain  the 
existence  of  the  nation.  These  two  facts  are,  for 
any  study  of  our  present  national  life  and  condi- 
tions, the  significant  features  and  results  of  that 
contest.  The  more  dramatic  accompaniments,  the 
emancipation  of  the  slaves  and  the  management  of 
the  revolted  States  after  the  war,  have  had  far  less 
influence  upon  the  life  and  thought  of  our  people. 
With  our  national  wealth  or  productive  property 


4  CERTAIN  DANGEROJJS  TENDENCIES 

SO  terribly  reduced,  and  with  the  new,  strange  bur- 
den of  an  enormous  debt,  there  was  but  one  course 
of  wisdom  and  safety,  —  that  of  the  most  rigid 
economy.  But  by  a  remarkable  delusion  our  peo- 
ple came  to  regard  the  paper  money,  every  note 
of  which  was  a  certificate  and  reminder  of  indebt- 
edness and  loss  of  property,  as  a  real  and  bound- 
less addition  to  our  wealth,  which  not  only  made 
good  our  material  losses,  but  made  us  far  richer 
than  we  had  been  before  the  war.  Under  the  in- 
fluence of  this  astounding  error  the  people  and  the 
government  plunged  at  once  into  reckless  extrav- 
agance of  expenditure,  thus  greatly  increasing  the 
loss  which  the  nation  had  suffered  by  the  war. 
The  heroic  sacrifice  and  endurance  of  the  people 
during  the  war  should  have  passed  afterward  into 
the  form  of  self-denial  and  renunciation  of  luxury 
till  our  debts  were  paid.  But  there  was  very  lit- 
tle effort  to  pay  what  we  owed.  On  the  contrary, 
the  indebtedness  of  the  nation,  and  of  the  States, 
cities,  and  towns  of  the  country,  was  prodigiously 
increased.  Most  people  lost  their  heads,  and  acted 
as  if  debts  were  never  to  be  paid,  and  as  if  wealth 
without  limit  could  be  created  at  will  by  acts  of 
Congress  authorizing  the  issue  of  paper  promises 
to  pay.  A  still  farther  reduction,  of  enormous 
extent,  of  the  wealth  of  the  nation  was  caused  by 
the  general  purchase  and  construction  of  things 
which  were  not  needed  by  the  people  —  articles 
of  luxuiy  and  display  —  at  a  cost  out  of  all  pro- 
portion to  the  wealth   or  income  of  the  owners. 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  6 

My  neighbor,  who  was  the  possessor  of  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars,  bought  a  piece  of  land  for  eight  thou- 
sand, and  built  on  it  a  house  which  cost  him  nearly 
all  his  remaining  fortune.  H^  seemed  to  think 
that  the  money  he  had  changed  into  stone  walls, 
fine  carvings,  and  costly  furniture  would  still  be 
productive,  would  yield  him  an  income.  When 
he  had  thus  improved  the  property,  as  he  phrased 
it,  he  claimed  that  it  was  worth  at  least  sixty 
thousand  dollars ;  that  is,  he  had  spent  most  of 
his  money  and  thought  he  was  worth  much  more 
than  when  he  began.  He  has  some  high-priced 
European  paintings,  but  he  cannot  eat  them,  and 
as  he  has  nothing  but  his  house  and  grounds  he 
has  had  to  stint  his  children  in  their  education, 
and  even  in  their  clothes  and  food.  He  wishes  to 
sell  his  property,  but  thinks  it  still  worth  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  though  it  would  not  sell  for  one 
third  of  that  amount.  This  is  a  pretty  good  rep- 
resentation of  the  course  of  multitudes  of  business 
men.  The  result  is  that  the  country  is  vastly 
poorer  than  the  people  are  willing  to  admit ;  that 
is,  they  value  their  property  at  vastly  more  than 
it  is  really  worth.  Much  of  our  wealth  consists  of 
houses,  furniture,  mills,  machinery,  and  railroads 
which  produce  nothing,  and  which  cannot  be  sold. 
This  is  not  real  wealth.  Much  of  the  money  in- 
vested in  such  things  is  irretrievably  lost,  and  it 
would  be  better  for  us  to  face  the  disagreeable 
truth  at  once. 

This  extravagance  and  the  delifsion  which  fos- 


6  CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

tered  it  had  some  important  results  in  the  domain 
of  morals.  Manual  labor  came  to  be  regarded  as 
in  great  measure  unnecessary,  and  to  be  despised 
as  a  badge  of  inferiority  by  many  who  had  always 
been  engaged  in  it.  Multitudes  of  men  who  had 
until  then  honestly  earned  or  produced  their  liv- 
ing by  the  work  of  their  hands  now  began  to  live 
by  their  wits,  by  starting  and  controlling  business 
enterprises  for  the  investment  of  other  people's 
money,  and  by  taking  government  contracts  and 
corporation  jobs.  The  abounding  dishonesty  which 
has  since  then  been  our  curse,  the  repudiation  of 
the  debts  of  States,  towns,  and  cities,  with  the 
alarming  development  of  the  disposition  to  steal 
trust  funds,  —  these  and  other  unfavorable  ele- 
ments in  the  life  of  the  time  had  their  source  and 
main  impulse  in  the  delusion  about  the  nature  and 
powers  of  paper  money,  in  the  uncertainty  of  its 
value,  and  in  the  extravagance  engendered  by  the 
war.  A  passionate  greed  for  riches  was  developed 
among  our  people.  Men  had  no  longer  any  vision 
for  realities,  but  built  upon  illusions  and  impossi- 
bilities as  if  they  were  the  solid  facts  and  laws  of 
nature.  The  leading  clergymen  and  writers  of 
the  nation  encouraged  and  defended  this  enor- 
mous and  reckless  acquisitiveness,  and  talked,  in 
philosophical  phrases,  about  the  aspirations  of  the 
masses  for  improved  conditions,  leisure  for  cult- 
ure, and  a  higher  civilization.  The  pulpit  gave 
to  luxury  the  sanction  of  religion,  and  the  press 
urged  the  people  onward  in  their  career  of  extrav- 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  7 

agance  in  the  name  of  patriotism,  and  declared 
the  national  debt  a  national  blessing.  It  was  not 
to  be  expected  that  the  work^ngmen  should  be 
wiser  than  their  teachers.  The  increase  of  wages 
for  all  kinds  of  manual  labor  was  very  great,  but 
comparatively  few  of  the  workingmen  saved  any- 
thing. They  imitated  the  profusion  of  their  em- 
ployers and  guides.  Economy  was  deemed  un- 
necessary, stupid,  and  mean.  New  wants  were 
invented,  prudence  and  simplicity  of  life  went  out 
of  fashion,  and  habits  were  formed  and  senti- 
ments adopted  which  have  wrought  most  impor- 
tant changes  in  the  character  and  aims  of  the 
workingmen  of  this  country.  The  sheer  waste- 
fulness of  that  period,  if  it  could  be  adequately 
portrayed,  would  appear  incredible  to  all  who  did 
not  witness  it.  A  curious  feature  of  the  time  was 
the  fact  that  for  so  many  men  all  foresight  seemed 
to  have  become  impossible.  They  were  intoxi- 
cated by  their  fancied  prosperity,  and  were  confi- 
dent that  it  would  last  forever.  Into  these  condi- 
tions was  suddenly  plunged  a  population  which 
had  no  suflHcient  moral  safeguards  whatever.  The 
transition  to  dishonesty  had  been  prepared  for 
among  all  classes,  and  was  already  partly  accom- 
plished. 

This  leads  me  to  consider  the  religious  and 
moral  character  and  equipment  which  our  people 
possessed  fifteen  years  ago,  and  the  effect  of  the 
new  conditions  upon  these  factors  of  our  national 
life.    The  nominal  faith  or  religion  of  the  country 


8  CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

was  what  was  called  evangelical  Protestantism. 
Its  early  creeds  and  symbols  were  still  unchanged ; 
but  the  real  religion  of  the  people  was  already, 
to  a  great  extent,  a  decorous  worldliness.  The 
formal  observances  of  religion  depended  largely 
upon  habit ;  that  is,  the  religious  activities  of  our 
people  had  long  been  chiefly  the  momentum  re- 
maining from  old  impulses,  from  influxes  or  evo- 
lutions of  moral  or  spiritual  force  which  had  in- 
spired men  in  former  times,  and  had  then  pro- 
duced an  earnestness  and  self-denial  of  which 
even  the  tradition  was  mostly  lost.  The  force 
which  remained  was  constantly  diminishing.  The 
moral  impulse  received  long  before  had  mostly 
passed  into  structure,  had  produced  very  nearly  its 
full  effect  upon  the  character  of  men  and  the  forms 
of  life  in  society  ;  and  by  a  well-known  law,  which 
appears  in  the  working  of  all  forces  of  whatever 
nature,  the  power  that  had  thus  been  embodied 
could  not  be  used  again  in  the  same  form.  There 
was  no  longer  any  considerable  influx  or  evolution 
of  new  religious  power  or  vitality.  Many  minis- 
ters, and  multitudes  of  the  more  intelligent  mem- 
bers of  the  churches,  had  become  skeptical  in  re- 
gard to  some  of  the  cardinal  doctrines  of  the 
popular  Christianity.  These  doctrines  were,  in 
the  preaching  of  the  time,  habitually  so  softened 
and  accommodated  to  the  growing  doubt  that 
nearly  all  their  original  meaning  was  explained 
away.  A  vague  feeling  of  alarm  and  uncertainty 
had  for   some  time  pervaded  the   more   earnest 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  9 

portion  of  the  church,  —  a  distrust  of  tenden- 
cies which  yet  seemed  necessary  and  irresistible. 
Preaching  became  more  and  more  speculative  and 
rationalistic.  Everywhere  it  almost  ceased  to  deal 
with  morals  or  duty.  It  lost  all  edge,  all  direct- 
ness of  application  to  the  real  questions  and  inter- 
ests of  human  life  in  this  world.  It  was  no  longer 
addressed  to  the  conscience,  but  to  the  taste,  to 
the  aesthetic  judgment.  The  sweep  of  the  new 
time  carried  us  out  of  the  region  and  conditions 
in  which  it  had  been  the  function  of  the  pulpit 
to  rebuke  the  sins  of  men,  to  quicken  and  rein- 
force their  consciences  by  the  faithful  teaching  of 
the  moral  requirements  of  Christianity.  The  ef- 
fect of  the  new  hunger  for  wealth  and  display  ex- 
tended to  religion  and  its  organic  activities.  The 
new  tide  of  worldliness  rose  everywhere,  and  sub- 
merged to  a  great  extent  a  church  which  it  found 
open  and  without  defense  against  the  flood.  The 
conditions  of -life,  the  temptations  and  enticements, 
were  new.  The  allurements  to  greed  and  dishon- 
esty were  appallingly  strong.  The  rehgious  peo- 
ple of  the  country  in  general  had  no  adequate 
training  or  moral  discipline  to  prepare  them  to 
face  the  new  foes.  The  church  failed  to  meet  the 
needs  of  the  time.  She  did  vastly  better  than 
those  who  did  nothing,  than  many  of  her  critics. 
But  that  was  not  enough. 

The  disintegration  of  religion  has  proceeded 
rapidly.  There  are  now  several  features  of  our 
national  religious  life  and  thought  which  must  be 


10        CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

noted  in  any  real  study  of  onr  present  condition. 
No  one  statement  or  affirmation  can  be  made  to 
include  all  the  truth.  The  religion  of  our  country 
cannot  be  studied  adequately  or  successfully  in  the 
churches  of  the  large  cities  alone.  What  of  the 
people  in  the  smaller  towns,  the  villages,  and  coun- 
try neighborhoods  ?  What  is  their  religion  ?  The 
church  is  now,  for  the  most  part,  a  depository  of 
social  rather  than  of  religious  influences.  Its  chief 
force  or  vitality  is  no  longer  religious.  There  are 
still,  of  course,  many  truly  religious  people  in  the 
churches,  who  sincerely  believe  the  old  doctrines 
embodied  in  all  the  creeds.  But  these  are  every- 
where a  small  minority,  and  they  are  mournfully 
conscious  that  the  old  religious  life  and  power 
have  departed  from  the  church.  They  distrust 
the  methods  of  the  modern  revivalism,  and  do 
not  feel  at  home  among  the  younger  members  of 
the  church,  with  their  advanced  views  and  fash- 
ionable, thorough-going  worldlinessn  They  are 
alarmed  to  find  the  atmosphere  and  tone  of  the 
church  becoming  more  and  more  secular  and  busi- 
ness-like. These  people,  who  thus  represent  the 
better  elements  of  a  former  state  of  things,  are 
the  real  strength  of  the  evangelical  Protestant 
churches,  so  far  as  religion  is  concerned,  and  their 
character  is  one  of  the  most  wholesome  and  truly 
conservative  forces  of  our  national  life.  They  are 
not  liberal  in  their  views,  but  they  are  sincere. 
They  live  pure  and  good  lives.  They  speak  the 
truth,  a  rare  virtue  now,  and  they  can  be  trusted 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  H 

with  anybody's  money.  They  will  do  what  they 
believe  to  be  right,  though  all  men  deride  or  op- 
pose, and  at  any  cost  to  themselves  in  business  or 
worldly  interests.  But  they  are  too  few  to  regen- 
erate the  American  church,  though  their  influence 
is  highly  valuable  in  resisting  some  of  the  evil 
tendencies  of  the  age.  Most  of  them  are  old,  and 
they  have  few  successors  among  the  younger  peo- 
ple. They  have  already  done  most  of  their  work, 
and  their  number  and  strength  diminish  from 
year  to  year. 

For  a  very  large  class  of  which  we  may  next 
speak  the  church  furnishes  opportunity  for  a 
pleasant  social  life,  which  is  in  no  way  different 
from  the  social  life  of  amiable,  intelligent  people 
out  of  the  church ;  that  is,  there  is  nothing  dis- 
tinctively religious  about  it.  For  this  class  all  the 
barriers  and  distinctions  between  the  church  and 
the  woBld  have  been  removed.  Church  work  is 
for  them,  in  q,ll  its  forms,  a  kind  of  sacred  amuse- 
ment. Public  worship,  with  its  pulpit  oratory 
and  modern  church  music,  is  an  assthetic  enter- 
tainment. They  have  developed  a  religion  which 
is  not  religious.  They  have  learned  how  to  be 
Christians,  according  to  their  meaning,  without 
self-denial,  or  any  abridgment  of  the  pleasures, 
pursuits,  or  ambitions  of  people  who  acknowledge 
no  religious  obligations.  They  are  the  most  intel- 
ligent members  of  the  popular  churches  of  this 
country.  They  are  decorously  moral,  conforming 
to  the  easy,  worldly  criterion  of  people  of  like  so- 


12        CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

cial  position.  They  are  nearly  all  able  to  live 
comfortably,  possessing  the  necessaries  of  life  and 
a  f«\v  of  its  luxuries.  They  are  not  usually  scru- 
pulously truthful  or  conscientious,  and  do  not  be- 
lieve it  possible  to  maintain  a  very  high  standard 
of  justice  or  honesty  in  business  life.  They  re- 
gard the  golden  rule  as  impracticable,  and  with 
more  or  less  sincerity  deplore  the  existence  of  in- 
surmountable obstacles  in  the  way  of  obeying  it. 
They  do  not  believe  the  creeds  which  they  sub- 
scribe when  they  join  the  church,  and  generally 
make  no  secret  afterward  of  their  doubt  or  disbe- 
lief respecting  various  fundamental  doctrines  of 
Christianity.  But  they  have  a  horror  of  all  dis- 
sent which  takes  a  man  out  of  the  popular  church, 
and  show  no  respect  for  the  plea  of  conscience  in 
such  cases.  They  are  all  optimists,  believing  that 
things  are  sure  to  come  out  right.  They  distrust 
personal  earnestness  in  religious  matters,  but  are 
capable  of  self-sacrifice  or  action  for  the  public 
good  in  ways  approved  by  their  class,  while  they 
are  without  the  qualities  or  temper  enabling  a 
man  to  serve  an  unpopular  principle  or  cause. 
They  give  largely  for  all  kinds  of  charities.  In 
them  the  religion  popularly  professed  has  spent  its 
force,  and  they  can  contribute  little  to  aid  in  the 
moral  regeneration  of  the  country.  They  are  al- 
most destitute  of  moral  insight,  and  have  little 
confidence  in  principles,  trusting  entirely  to  man- 
agement, to  policy,  and  to  present  success. 

Their  ministers  are  men  of  intelligence  and  of 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  13 

considerable  culture.  They  believe  even  less  than 
their  people  of  the  doctrines  of  their  creeds.  They 
generally  avoid  doctrinal  subjects  in  preaching, 
and  have  for  some  years  based  their  teaching 
mostly  upon  utilitarian  grounds.  They  have  for 
themselves  accepted  rationalistic  beliefs  far  in  ad- 
vance of  what  they  teach,  and  consider  themselves 
engaged  in  a  most  necessary  and  useful  work,  — 
that  of  leading  the  people  gradually  onward  in 
thought  and  knowledge  by  carefully  giving  them 
the  truth  as  they  are  able  to  bear  it.  Their  cau- 
tion is  extreme,  and  they  thus  sacrifice  whatever 
strength  may  belong  to  courage  and  outspoken 
sincerity.  Their  teaching  is  far  less  advanced  and 
rationalistic  than  the  habitual  thought  of  their 
hearers.  They  do  not  understand  the  real  tenden- 
cies of  the  time,  lacking  the  insight  and  the  syn- 
thetic judgment  which  result  from  independent 
search  for  truth,  and  from  heartiness  of  convic- 
tion. They  greatly  overrate  the  success  of  their 
system  of  repression,  —  of  keeping  back  most  of 
what  they  themselves  believe.  It  fosters  skepti- 
cism, and  spreads  distrust  of  all  moral  and  relig- 
ious verity,  as  the  people  are  aware  that  their 
ministers  practice  the  concealment  of  their  real 
beliefs.  Their  preaching  is  usually  far  more  in- 
tellectual than  formerly,  but  is  not  based  on  the 
creeds,  nor  on  any  announced  or  coherent  philoso- 
phy, fragments  of  hostile  systems  of  thought  often 
appearing  in  amiable  proximity,  if  not  in  any  real 
relation,  to  each  other.     There  is  nobody  to  crit- 


14         CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

icise  the  preaching  of  these  clergymen.  Their 
teaching  is  often  curiously  remote  from  all  the 
practical  concerns  and  conditions  of  life  in  our 
time  and  country,  and  is  almost  entirely  destitute 
of  moral  authority  and  power.  They  regard  the 
general  engagement  of  their  people  in  the  work  of 
charity  organizations  as  evidence  of  the  triumphant 
vitality  of  Christianity  in  our  age ;  which  is  much 
as  if  the  officers  of  an  army  should  boast  that  all 
their  soldiers  able  for  duty  are  in  the  hospitals 
caring  for  their  sick  comrades,  and  that  all  the 
able-bodied  men  at  home  must  soon  be  conscripted 
for  the  same  service.  They  do  not  see  that  Chris- 
tianity, to  be  successful,  must  learn  how  to  dry 
up,  in  great  measure,  the  sources  of  the  rising  cur- 
rents of  pauperism,  vice,  and  crime,  nor  under- 
stand that  their  own  methods  are  largely  respon- 
sible for  the  magnitude  of  the  burdens,  rapidly 
becoming  intolerable,  of  the  charities  which  are 
their  pride. 

In  the  more  prosperous  American  churches  in 
the  regions  to  which  modern  styles  of  dress  and 
living  have  extended  there  are  now  but  few  poor 
people,  and  these  feel  more  and  more  each  year 
that  the  church  is  no  home  for  them.  There  is 
for  them,  usually,  no  fraternal  association  with 
their  more  fortunate  neighbors  in  the  church  ;  no 
wholesome,  natural,  cordial  relation  between  them 
as  human  beings  or  brethren.  And  there  is  a  very 
large  class  who  are  not  extremely  poor,  but  who 
are  obliged  to  dress  plainly  and  to  practice  rigid 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  15 

economy  in  order  to  obtain  the  necessaries  of  life. 
In  favorable  times  they  may  be  said  to  rise  to  con- 
ditions of  comfort,  but  for  the  most  part  they  are 
familiar  with  the  pressure  of  hardship,  and  their 
life  is  a  struggle  for  the  means  to  live.  They  of 
course  cannot  aspire  to  what  is  now  considered 
good  social  position,  as  that  usually  depends  upon 
the  style  of  dress  and  house-furnishing  more  ^han 
upon  character.  This  is  a  very  important  portion 
of  our  population.  Most  of  them  are  industrious 
and  honest,  and  many  of  them  are  advancing  in 
intelligence.  Some  of  them  have  a  strong  desire 
for  knowledge,  and  read  the  best  books  they  can 
obtain.  There  is  good  material  among  them  for 
a*iore  rational  and  practical  culture  than  is  yet 
possessed  by  their  neighbors  who  are  in  better  cir- 
cumstances. This  class  also  is  rapidly  passing  out 
of  the  church.  The  movement  is  largely  the  re- 
sult of  impulses  from  the  more  prosperous  people 
in  the  churches,  and  is  not  caused  so  much  by  the 
growth  of  irreligion  among  these  men  and  their 
families  as  by  the  development  of  an  unfratemal 
spirit,  —  a  class-feeling,  —  among  those  more  suc- 
cessful in  acquiring  this  world's  goods.  Many 
who  are  thus  separating  themselves  from  •  the 
churches  are  injured  by  the  change.  They  enjoy 
their  greater  freedom  from  restraint,  and  often 
sink  to  a  life  of  less  strenuous  effort  at  self-direc- 
tion. They  do  not  feel  bound  to  resist  temptation, 
or  deny  appetite  its  gratifications.  But  most  of 
this  class  are  still,  in  the  main,  moral  and  whole- 


16         CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

some  in  character  and  personal  influence,  chiefly 
from  the  power  of  habit  and  family  traditions  of 
rectitude.  Many  of  them  are  gradually  becoming 
hostile  and  bitter  toward  the  church  and  all  spe- 
cifically religious  activities,  and  their  children  usu- 
ally receive  at  home  no  religious  instruction  what- 
ever, being  free  to  go  to  church  or  not,  as  they 
please.  Tiie  effect  of  this  parental  indifference 
upon  the  culture  and  morals  of  the  young  people 
is  not  favorable.  Among  the  more  intelligent  of 
this  class  there  has  been,  within  the  last  fifteen 
years,  a  rapid  development  of  what  is  called  infi- 
delity ;  that  is,  of  opinions  which  involve  the  re- 
jection of  evangelical  Christianity.  Up  to  this 
time  the  great  mass  of  plain  people  in  this  colh- 
try,  of  those  who  work  with  their  l^ands,  know 
nothing  of  any  religion  besides  evangelical  Prot- 
estantism and  Roman  Catholicism.  The  people 
who  reject  the  popular  religious  creeds,  both  among 
the  poor  and  among  the  more  prosperous  and  cul- 
tivated, with  some  exceptions  to  be  noted  farther 
on,  are  generally  giving  up  religion  entirely.  No 
new  system  or  form  of  religious  belief  or  life  is 
taking  the  place  of  the  old  faith  which  has  lost  its 
power.  But  these  people  are  still  accessible  to 
any  vital  improving  influences  not  specifically  ec- 
clesiastical in  form.  Their  morals  are  commonly 
as  good  as  those  of  the  most  prominent  church- 
members,  and  they  are  probably  more  truthful, 
conscientious,  and  just  than  most  people  in  the 
church.     But  they  are  not  religious ;  that  is,  they 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  17 

have  no  ideas,  principles,  or  beliefs  in  regard  to 
human  responsibility  which  exercise  any  consider- 
able power  of  restraint  upon  their  conduct  when 
interest  or  appetite  is  involved.  They  feel  no  im- 
pulse to  association  with  their  neighbors  for  any 
kind  of  moral  or  religious  culture.  A  few  are  in- 
clined to  propagate  their  negative  notions  and  hos- 
tility to  religion  ;  the  greater  number  are  simply 
indifferent.  Many  of  them  have  read  the  news- 
paper and  magazine  dilutions  of  the  writings  of 
Darwin,  Huxley,  and  Spencer,  and  have  thus  been 
sti'engthened  in  their  opposition  to  the  old  beliefs. 
Most  of  them  are  sensible,  practical,  capable  peo- 
ple, not  given  to  sentiment  or  illusions  of  any 
kind ;  often  somewhat  narrow  and  hard,  but  with 
valuable  intellectual  and  moral  qualities.  Their 
greatest  defect  seems  to  be  that  they  feel  too  little 
responsibility  for  the  moral  culture  of  their  chil- 
dren and  those  of  their  neighbors.  They  have 
too  little  aspiration  and  national  feeling,  and  are 
giving  themselves  entirely  to  material  interests. 
It  cannot  be  said  that  they  are  as  a  class  doing 
much  for  themselves,  and  nobody  else  is  doing 
anything  for  them  as  to  culture  or  morals.  Their 
future  course  depends  upon  that  of  the  cultivated 
classes.  If  there  is  within  a  few  years  a  marked 
expansion  of  national  culture  and  increase  of  its 
dynamic  vitality,  these  people  will  do  much  to 
strengthen  the  better  tendencies  of  the  nation's 
life.  They  are  capable  of  important  changes. 
Below  these  as  to  intellectual  character  and 
2 


18         CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

equipment  there  is  a  lai'ger  class,  in  whom  pre- 
liistoric  or  savage  thought  still  survives  with  very 
slight  modifications  from  science  or  any  other 
modem  influence.  Our  fellow-citizens  of  this  class 
believe  in  luck,  omens,  dreams,  signs  of  many 
kinds  (that  is,  in  supernatural  indications  or  fore- 
shadowings  of  future  events),  and  in  the  presence 
and  influence  of  the  spirits  of  the  dead,  whom 
they  habitually  or  occasionally  consult  in  various 
ways.  These  have  not  all  rejected  evangelical 
Protestantism,  as  great  numbers  of  them  are  mem- 
bers of  the  popular  chui-ches.  Many  of  them  have 
wealth  and  social  position.  The  women  of  this 
class  constitute  the  larger  portion  of  the  great 
army  of  readers  of  worthless  books  of  fiction  and 
serials  in  the  story-newspapers.  Perhaps  a  ma- 
jority of  the  members  of  the  evangelical  Protest- 
ant churches  in  this  country  have  at  some  time 
consulted  the  spirits  of  dead  people,  by  the  help  of 
some  professional  ghost-seer  or  medium.  But  out- 
side of  the  church  the  believers  in  spirits,  spells, 
possessions,  omens,  visions,  warnings,  and  the 
other  features  of  prehistoric  supernaturalism  are 
usually  hostile  to  Christianity.  They  think  the 
inspirations  and  revelations  of  many  trance-speak- 
ers and  mediums  in  this  country  superior  in  value 
to  those  recorded  in  the  Bible.  They  have  usu- 
ally a  scorn  of  history,  and  of  the  past  as  a 
teacher,  and  are  especially  hostile  to  belief  in  any 
authority  except  that  of  the  individual  soul.  They 
mostly  regard  society  as  a,great  oppressor,  and  be- 


JN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  19 

lieve  that  priests  (they  call  all  ministers  priests) 
have  been  the  autliors  and  are  now  the  chief  sup- 
porters of  neariy  all  the  evils  which  afflict  man- 
kind. They  are  all  sentimentalists  ;  that  is,  they 
attach  little,  value  to  facts,  and  do  not  think  it 
important  to  study  them.  Their  contempt  for 
scientific  methods  of  investigation  is  nearly  equal 
to  their  scorn  for  history.  They  depend  chiefly 
upon  intuition  and  the  great  instincts  of  humanity 
for  their  guidance,  and  for  the  determination  of 
all  problems.  They  would  like  to  see  the  existing 
organization  and  institutions  of  society  displaced, 
and  think  it  would  be  a  great  gain  to  stop  trying 
to  patch  up  the  old  systems  of  religion  and  law, 
and  begin  anew.  They  see  no  great  difficulty  in 
the  attempt  to  establish  an  entirely  new  organi- 
zation of  society,  with  all  necessary  institutions, 
machinery,  and  activities,  and  believe  that  it  could 
be  done  at  once,  with  immense  advantage  to  the 
people,  if  only  the  priests  and  the  money  power 
were  put  down.  They  have  a  kind  of  rage  against 
churches  and  all  the  organized  activities  of  Chris- 
tianity. They  have  not  yet  any  religion  of  their 
own,  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word,  as  they  do 
not  worship  or  revere  anytliing  as  higher  or  better 
than  themselves.  Their  nearest  approach  to  ado- 
ration is  their  belief  in  the  omnipotence  of  a  free 
platform ;  that  is,  of  a  mass-meeting  of  believers 
in  the  sovereignty  of  the  individual,  with  abso- 
lutely no  restrictions  as  to  the  direction  or  extent 
of  the  discussions.     They  have  a  stronger  impulse 


20        CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

to  propagate  their  sentiments  than  is  manifested 
by  any  other  class  in  our  country  at  present,  and 
have  more  enthusiasm  and  self-sacrifice  for  their 
cause  and  objects  than  the  people  who  hold  better 
doctrines.  (This  stirring  of  powerful  impulses 
among  the  more  ignorant  and  undeveloped,  while 
the  cultivated  classes,  the  leaders  of  society,  are 
bewildered  and  indisposed  to  action,  is  one  of  the 
most  significant  features  of  our  age.)  They  have 
not  wholly  escaped  injury  to  their  morals  in  thus 
casting  off  the  restraints  of  the  old  beliefs.  There 
has  been  a  serious  and  general  lowering  of  moral 
tone  and  quality  among  them  during  the  last  fif- 
teen years,  and  this  deterioration  is  still  going  on. 
But  this  has  not  yet  resulted  in  any  great  increase 
of  concrete  immorality,  except  the  immorality  of 
worthless  talk,  incessant,  universal,  and  intermin- 
able. There  has  been  some  sexual  vice  among 
them,  but  it  has  been  mostly  of  a  cold-blooded 
kind,  the  effort  of  theorists  making  experiments 
and  ostentatiously  trying  to  be  wicked,  rather 
than  the  wild  play  of  ungoverned  impulse  and 
passion.  There  is  not  yet  a  large  growth  of  licen- 
tiousness in  American  society.  It  increases  only 
as  the  criminal  classes  increase,  and  especially  as 
thieves  become  more  numerous.  Thieves  of  all 
grades,  burglars,  and  pickpockets  habitually  resort 
to  houses  of  ill-fame.  It  is  the  common  method 
of  spending  money  dishonestly  obtained.  But 
there  is  not  yet  any  considerable  spread  of  licen- 
tiousness upward  through  society,  and  life  is  prob- 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  21 

ably  cleaner  and  better  in  this  respect  in  our  time 
than  ever  before.  In  other  ways  the  immoral 
effects  produced  by  the  ideas  and  sentiments  of 
the  large  class  which  I  am  now  describing  are 
extensive  and  important.  They  have  seriously 
weakened  respect  for  law  in  all  parts  of  our  coun- 
try, and  have  profoundly  influenced  public  senti- 
ment in  opposition  to  the  punishment  of  criminals. 
They  have  to  a  great  extent  abjured  the  doctrine 
of  individual  responsibility  for  wrong-doing,  and 
their  ideas  have  pervaded  the  atmosphere  of  the 
age,  and  have  so  benumbed  the  conscience  of  the 
nation  that  the  unwillingness  of  good  people  to 
have  the  laws  enforced,  and  their  sympathy  for 
ciiminals,  are  among  the  most  threatening  evils 
of  our  society.  Their  worst  immorality  is  their 
teaching;  especially  the  character  of  their  ad- 
dresses, lectures,  and  discussions,  in  which  there 
is  almost  everywhere  a  wild  vehemence  of  attack 
upon  all  tjie  principles  of  religion,  morality,  and 
social  order,  which  is  unrestrained  by  any  regard 
for  truth,  decency,  or  justice.  The  orators  are  ab- 
solutely irresponsible,  as  they  recognize  no  author- 
ity but  their  own  wills.  They  have  a  fluency  of 
extempore  utterance,  with  ability  to  talk  for  any 
length  of  time,  which  inspires  great  admiration 
among  the  people  ;  for  the  masses  in  our  country 
have  a  boundless  delight  in  what  they  call  elo- 
quence, meaning  usually  a  great  flow  of  words  and 
a  confident  manner,  with  many  sounding  phrases 
about  the  progress  of  humanity,  the  grandeur  of 


22        CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

free  thought,  and  the  resistless  uprising  of  the  peo- 
ple. No  other  class  is  at  present  so  successfully 
educating  the  people  of  this  country.  They  are 
positive  and  aggressive,  and  have  a  certain  power 
of  enthusiasm  or  afflatus  which  no  other  class  now 
possesses.  They  have  many  organized  societies, 
traveling  lecturers,  and  missionaries,  and  a  score 
or  two  of  newspapers,  besides  an  enormous  litera- 
ture of  their  own,  if  one  may  apply  the  word  lit- 
erature to  their  productions.  It  is  a  great  and 
successful  movement  for  the  propagation  of  uned- 
ucated thought,  the  spectacle  of  the  untaught 
classes  and  disorganizing  forces  of  the  time  taking 
possession  of  the  printing-press,  of  the  rostrum, 
and  of  the  ballot,  and  attacking  modern  society 
with  its  own  weapons.  It  is  a  wide-spread  revolt 
against  civilization. 

There  can  be  no  doubt,  after  any  real  investi- 
gation of  the  matter,  that  this  class  in  whom  the 
methods  and  tendencies  of  prehistoric  thought  are 
still  dominant  and  almost  unmodified  by  modern 
culture  —  the  class  believing  in  omens,  visions, 
spirit  communications,  impressions,  and  intuitions, 
and  in  the  sovereignty  of  the  individual's  impulses 
—  includes  several  millions  of  our  countrymen. 
They  incline  to  think  nearly  all  labor  unnecessary, 
and  generally  regard  employers  as  oppressors  who 
defraud  the  workingmen  of  the  larger  part  of  the 
fruits  of  their  toil.  They  are  met  and  reinforced 
upon  this  ground  by  a  great  number  of  the  work- 
ing-class, who  have  no  theories  or  ideas  of  progress, 


TN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  23 

but  who  have  done  little  honest  work  since  the 
great  inflation  of  prices  a  few  years  ago.  That 
inflation  had  a  most  disastrous  effect  on  the  con- 
science and  sense  of  honor  of  multitudes  of  work- 
ingmen.  They  have  ever  since  acted  on  the  plan 
of  getting  all  they  possibly  can  out  of  their  em- 
ployers, and  giving  as  little  as  possible  in  return. 
They  regard  the  capitalist,  that  is,  whoever  has 
money,  as  their  natural  enemy  and  prey.  The 
theorists  who  wish  to  reconstruct  society  outright, 
and  govern  it  afterward  by  mass-meetings  in  con- 
tinuous session,  encourage  the  discontent  and  in- 
dolence of  the  men  who  believe  they  ought  to  be 
paid  high  wages  for  veiy  light  work.  The  pros- 
tration of  business  and  industry  extending  over  the 
whole  country  during  the  last  few  years  has  given 
all  these  people  unprecedented  opportunity,  and 
has  greatly  stimulated  the  sentiments  and  tenden- 
cies which  they  represent.  They  have  the  im- 
mense advantage  and  sanction  which  their  attack 
upon  the  existing  order  of  things  derives  from  the 
extreme  hardship  and  real  suffering  now  for  some 
time  endured  by  many  of  the  working  people  in 
different  parts  of  our  country. 

The  political  objects  and  plans  of  this  large 
class  of  our  citizens  are  much  more  fully  defined 
and  articulate  than  is  yet  believed  by  those  who 
regard  them  with  contempt  or  indifference.  Of 
coui-se  they  do  not  themselves  know  what  their 
own  part  may  be  in  later  stages  of  the  enterprise 
which  they  are  undertaking.     But  some  of  their 


24         CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

aims  are  clear.  They  believe  that  the  interests 
of  the  laborer,  of  the  people,  as  they  say,  will  be 
advanced  by  crippling  and  injuring  capital  in 
every  possible  way  ;  and  this  they  intend  to  do. 
Tliey  will  influence  legislation  in  this  direction 
wherever  they  have  the  power.  They  do  not  re- 
gard the  capitalist  as  one  of  the  people,  but  as  a 
criminal  and  enemy  who  has  no  rights  that  the 
people  should  respect.  Those  who  possess  property 
and  who  live  in  comfort  and  refinement  are  more 
and  more  regarded  as  the  foes  of  the  workingmen. 
Intellectual  labor  is  not  respected.  Professional 
men,  scholars,  teachers,  and  cultivated  people  are 
none  of  them  acknowledged  as  laborers,  or  as  hav- 
ing any  just  title  to  labor's  rewards.  The  rela- 
tions between  the  people  Avho  have  property  and 
culture,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  workingmen, 
on  the  other,  are  regarded  by  the  latter  more  and 
more  as  a  state  of  war ;  so  that  any  advantage 
gained  or  injury  inflicted  by  the  laborers  is  to  be 
regarded  as  justifiable  and  right.  We  are  in  the 
earlier  stages  of  a  war  upon  property,  and  upon 
everything  that  satisfies  what  are  called  the  higher 
wants  of  civilized  life.  The  workingmen  are 
taught  to  regard  works  of  art  and  instruments  of 
high  culture,  with  all  the  possessions  and  sur- 
roundings of  people  of  wealth  and  refinement,  as 
causes  and  symbols  of  the  laborer's  poverty  and 
degradation,  and  therefore  as  things  to  be  hated. 
The  movement  has  already  in  many  places  at- 
tacked and  crippled  the  higher  departments  of  our 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  25 

public-school  education,  and  its  leaders  assail  all 
endowments  and  appropriations  for -scientific  re- 
search. Tlie  strongest  tendencies  and  influences 
now  operating  among  these  people  are  leading 
them  to  a  region  and  condition  in  which  regard 
for  the  higher  elements  of  the  life  of  civilized  man, 
for  art,  literature,  and  culture,  is  impossible.  They 
do  not  value  science  more  than  art  or  religion,  ex- 
cept in  those  applications  of  it  which  have  an  im- 
mediate commercial  value.  The  war  against  all 
these  things  will  be  prosecuted  with  desperate  en- 
ergy and  persistence  unless  something  is  speedily 
done  to  counteract  and  change  some  of  the  chief 
tendencies  of  the  age  ;  unless  there  is  an  evolution 
or  application  of  forces  adecjuate  to  create  a  new 
series  of  circumstances.  The  instincts  of  destruc- 
tion are  already  very  strong  in  multitudes  of  men 
in  this  country.  They  are  becoming  fiercely  hos- 
tile to  everything  that  does  not  belong  to  the  ma- 
terial life  of  man,  or  which  is  not  required  to  sat- 
isfy his  bodily  wants. 

The  greatest  danger  is  not  that  of  armed  vio- 
lence or  riotous  destruction  of  property.  The 
chief  point  of  attack,  naturally,  and  as  arranged 
by  the  leaders  of  the  movement,  is  to  be  for  some 
time  to  come  the  money  or  currency  of  the  coun- 
try. They  have  for  some  years  endeavored  to 
bring  the  whole  subject  of  the  currency,  its  char- 
acter, basis,  and  amount,  under  the  direct  and  im- 
mediate control  of  the  people  in  mass-meeting  as- 
sembled, so  that  all  questions  of  the  issue  and 


26         CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

circulation  of  money  shall  be  brought  before  the 
countiy,  voted  upon,  and  decided  anew  at  every 
election.  At  present  the  leaders  favor  a  series  of 
feints,  that  is,  strenuous  advocacy  of  some  meas- 
ure that  cannot  be  adopted ;  and,  when  it  is  de- 
feated, the  attempt,  without  attracting  attention 
or  exciting  opposition,  to  obtain  in  another  form 
as  nearly  as  possible  the  same  legislation.  Unless 
there  is  more  effective  effort  to  prevent  such  a 
result,  our  experience  of  a  vast  inflation  of  the 
currency,  with  the  slow  and  painful  climbing  up 
again  to  specie  payments,  is  likely  to  be  repeated. 
There  never  was  much  purpose  or  cooperation 
among  people  of  this  class  in  our  country  until 
very  recently,  but  they  are  now  awaking  to  a 
sense  of  their  power.  Their  idea  of  government 
is  to  place  less  emphasis  upon  constitutional  pro- 
visions, to  disregard  or  set  them  aside  when  nec- 
essary, and  to  depend  more  and  more  upon  con- 
gressional legislation;  to  make  the  judiciary  and 
all  other  offices  elective,  to  increase  as  much  as 
may  be  the  power  of  Congress,  or  rather  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  and  to  place,  as  nearly 
as  possible,  the  entire  administration  of  the  gov- 
ernment directly  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  to  be 
conducted  by  means  of  the  political  canvass  or 
campaign.  The  aim  is  to  destroy,  little  by  little, 
the  constitutional  and  representative  character  of 
the  government,  in  order  to  enable  the  people  to 
decide  everything  anew,  if  they  wish  to  do  so,  at 
each  annual  election.     There  is  to  be  an  agitation 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  27 

or  series  of  efforts  for  the  reduction  of  all  terms  of 
office  to  the  shortest  possible  time.  Our  fellow- 
citizens  of  this  class  hold  that  representatives  of 
the  people  should  always  obey  instructions  from 
their  constituents,  or  should  immediately  resign. 
They  do  not  trust  each  other  very  far,  and  the 
workingmen  especially  believe  that  if  one  of  their 
own  number  is  elected  to  a  place  in  a  state  legisla- 
ture, or  in  Congress,  he  can  be  bribed  or  "  bought 
up  "  by  the  money  power,  and  that  for  a  very  pal- 
try sum.  They  never  before  had  any  competent 
directors  ;  but  while  they  still  quarrel  among 
themselves  over  details,  a  vast  number  are  for  the 
first  time  in  substantial  agreement  in  their  pur- 
pose to  seek  the  ends  which  I  have  described,  and 
to  advance  toward  them  persistently,  and  by  any 
methods  that  promise  partial  success.  They  hold 
that  it  is  the  function  of  government  to  "  make 
good  times  "  for  the  people,  that  is,  for  the  work- 
ingmen  ;  and  that  there  is  already  sufficient  wealth 
in  existence  in  our  country  to  give  the  working 
people  good  times,  if  it  were  only  rightly  distrib- 
uted. 

This,  after  many  years  of  observation,  extend- 
ing to  most  of  the  States  of  our  country,  I  believe 
to  be  a  just  estimate  of  our  present  condition  and 
tendencies.  We  have  a  great  increase  and  devel- 
opment of  unfavorable  and  disorganizing  foi'ces 
within  our  national  life,  and  no  corresponding  in- 
crease of  wholesome  or  vital  activities.  The  in- 
fluence of  the  church  and  of  religion  upon  the 


28         CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

morals  and  conduct  of  men  has  greatly  declined, 
and  is  still  declining.  There  is  yet,  as  I  have  said, 
a  large  amount  of  moral  force  and  healtliful  life 
in  the  church.  Religion  is  not  extinct.  But  the 
really  significant  fact  here  is  that  it  is  constantly 
losing  ground.  The  empire  of  religion  over  hu- 
man conduct,  its  power  as  a  conservative  moral 
and  social  force,  is  so  far  lost  that  some  things 
which  are  indispensable  to  the  existence  of  so- 
ciety can  no  longer  be  supplied  from  this  source 
without  a  great  increase  of  vitality  in  religion  it- 
self. The  morality  based  upon  the  religion  popu- 
larly professed  has,  to  a  fatal  extent,  broken  down. 
Multitudes  of  men  who  are  religious  are  not  hon- 
est or  trustworthy.  They  declare  themselves  fit 
for  heaven,  but  they  will  not  tell  the  truth,  nor 
deal  justly  with  their  neighbors.  The  money  of 
widows  and  orphans  placed  under  their  control  is 
not  safer  than  in  the  hands  of  highwaymen.  There 
is  no  article  of  food,  medicine,  or  traffic  which  can 
be  profitably  adulterated  or  injuriously  manipu- 
lated that  is  not,  in  most  of  the  great  centres  of 
trade,  thus  corrupted  and  sold  by  prominent  mem- 
bers of  Christian  churches.  I  have  made  all  these 
statements  as  colorless  as  possible,  desiring  to  pre- 
sent a  coldly  accurate  report  of  the  more  impor- 
tant facts  and  tendencies  of  the  life  and  thought  of 
our  country  as  I  have  observed  them.  The  evils 
mentioned  are  highly  complex  in  character,  and 
are  parts  of  a  system  over  which  individuals,  as 
such,  have  little  power.     We  must  take  account 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  29 

of  them  as  a  wise  captain  acquaints  himself  with 
the  position  and  numbers  of  a  hostile  force. 

Our  situation  is  the  more  unfavorable  because 
of  the  inevitable  decline  of  patriotism  among  us 
immediately  after  the  war,  —  a  lowering  of  na- 
tional vitality  which  still  affects  us  seriously. 
This  was  largely  caused  by  the  utter  exhaustion 
of  the  faculties  of  the  people  ;  a;n  incapacity  of 
their  powers  of  brain,  nerve,  and  mind*  for  con- 
tinued action  in  the  same  directions  after  the 
fearful  tension  maintained  during  the  struggle. 
As  all  our  intellectual  and  moral  activities  are 
correlated  with  physical  forces,  this  exhaustion 
was  unavoidable,  and  any  great  moral  effort  on 
the  part  of  the  people  at  the  close  of  the  war  was 
next  to  impossible.  This  has  most  probably  had 
something  to  do  with  the  great  indifference  in  re- 
gard to  the  violation  of  the  laws  displayed  by 
local  communities.  The  leading  citizens  in  many 
places  habitually  transgress  some  laws,  finding  it 
convenient  or  profitable  to  disregard  them.  In 
one  of  the  best  towns  of  an  Eastern  State  the 
principal  property  holders  and  public-spirited  citi- 
zens met  from  time  to  time  for  some  months,  last 
year,  to  devise  measures  to  repress  crime  and  im- 
morality, and  to  promote  flie  order  and  welfare 
of  the  community.  The  relation  of  society  to 
pauperism,  the  sources  of  vice,  the  province  of 
legislation,  and  the  duty  of  good  men  in  relation 
to  such  subjects  were  freely  discussed.  Two  or 
three  gentlemen  urged  the  adoption  of  some  ex- 


30        CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

pression,  by  these  chief  men  of  the  place,  of  their 
sense  of  the  importance  of  strict  obedience  to  the 
laws  on  the  part  of  all  good  citizens  ;  but  it  was 
impossible  to  obtain  anything  of  the  kind.  I  have 
learned  that  the  same  thing  has  occurred  in  sev- 
eral other  places.  Some  of  this  evil  may  be  due 
to  over-legislation ;  but,  whatever  may  be  the 
causes,  we  are  becoming  a  nation  of  law-breakers. 
The  laws  relating  to  streets,  sidewalks,  and  do- 
mestic animals,  for  instance,  and  various  other 
minor  statutes,  are  habitually  violated  in  country 
places  by  some  of  the  best  people.  The  great 
number  of  people  from  other  countries  now  living 
in  nearly  all  our  towns  and  villages,  and  the  fre- 
quent removals  to  other  places  on  the  part  of 
many  citizens,  are  hindrances  to  the  speedy  at- 
tainment of  a  real  unity  or  homogeneous  character 
by  the  population  of  our  local  communities.  Peo- 
ple will  not  love  their  country  unless  they  love  the 
place  where  they  live  and  endeavor  to  promote 
its  interests. 

It  is  said  that  our  system  of  popular  education 
provides  sufficient  safeguards  against  the  dangers 
here  pointed  out.  But  even  if  its  work  were 
henceforth  to  be  perfect,  its  operation  would  nec- 
essarily be  too  slow  for  some  things  which  our 
present  situation  requires.  Our  school  system  as 
it  now  exists  cannot  be  depended  on  to  remedy 
or  avert  the  evils  which  threaten  us.  Most  of 
the  class  whose  use  of  prehistoric  methods  of 
thought  leads  them  to  rely  upon  instinct  and  in- 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  31 

tuition,  rather  than  upon  any  results  of  human 
experience,  have  enjoyed  the  opportunities  of  our 
schools,  and  have  received,  in  an  average  degree, 
the  benefits  which  our  system  of  education  now 
confers.  The  people  from  whom  these  dangers 
arise  are  not  stupid  or  ignorant,  nor  are  their  minds 
inactive.  They  have  been  through  our  schools ; 
they  edit  newspapers,  make  our  political  speeches 
in  all  the  country  places,  and  represent  us  in  Con- 
gi'ess.  They  are  not  so  much  uneducated  as  mis- 
educated  ;  their  faculties  are  active,  particularly 
of  late  years,  but  they  are  undisciplined  and  mis- 
directed, and  the  result  of  their  thinking  is  largely 
erroneous.  For  these  difficulties  our  public  school 
system  furnishes  no  adequate  remedy.  Two  things 
are  especially  to  be  noted  in  our  popular  school 
education  :  it  usually  leads  to  no  interest  in  lit- 
erature or  acquaintance  with  it,  nor  to  any  sense 
of  the  value  of  history  for  modern  men,  —  a  very 
serious  defect ;  and  its  most  characteristic  and 
general  result  is  a  distaste  for  manual  labor.  We 
have  some  good  schools,  of  course ;  but  great 
numbers  of  teachers  and  principals  of  our  high 
schools  in  country  places  have  for  several  years 
explicitly  taught  their  pupils,  and  urged  upon 
parents,  the  sentiment  that  in  this  country  edu- 
cation should  raise  all  who  obtain  it  above  the 
necessity  of  drudgery  ;  that  there  are  better  ways 
of  making  a  living  than  manual  labor  "  at  so 
much  for  a  day's  work,"  and  that  these  higher  ways 
will  be  open  to  those  who  'i  get   an  education." 


32        CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

All  this  has  resulted  in  a  dainty,  effeminate,  and 
false  view  of  the  world  as  a  place  where  only  un- 
educated and  inferior  people  need  work  hard,  or 
engage  in  toilsome  or  unattractive  employments. 

There  are  two  or  three  small  bodies  of  dissent- 
ers from  the  popular  religions  whose  work  is  one 
of  the  factors  of  the  life  of  the  nation.  They 
have  prepared  some  excellent  material  for  a  bet- 
ter state  of  things.  A  few  cultivated  men  among 
them  have  given  the  nation  the  best  of  its  litera- 
ture. The  work  of  most  of  the  ministers  among 
these  dissenters  is  at  present,  indeed,  rather  more 
literary  in  its  character  than  is  desirable.  They 
do  not  so  much  preach  as  write  literary  essays. 
Their  position  is,  however,  in  large  measure,  a 
necessity,  and  the  character  of  their  work  up  to 
the  present  time  has  been  the  inevitable  product 
of  the  most  important  intellectual  and  religious 
movement  of  the  century.  But  a  vital  advance 
ought  also  now  to  be  inevitable  for  them.  Some 
of  them  see  the  gravity  of  our  national  situation 
and  prospects,  and  are  doing  all  in  their  power  to 
prepare  the  people  about  them  for  wise  and  whole- 
some action  and  life  in  the  service  of  the  country. 
Others  cherish  an  urbane  philosophical  optimism, 
and  smile  at  the  idea  of  any  serious  danger  to 
American  institutions,  political  or  religious.  But 
these  live  curiously  remote  from  the  common  peo- 
ple, or  meet  them  only  in  the  peculiar  relations 
which  charity  involves.  They  often  know  more 
about  other  times  and  lands  than  our  own.     Most 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  33 

of  them  are,  like  the  best  men  in  the  pulpits  of  all 
the  churches,  loyally  devoted  to  truth,  and  eager  to 
be  helpful  to  mankind,  but  they  have  to  contend 
at  every  step  against  the  spirit  of  the  age.  The 
people  of  this  country  are  —  to  apply  a  phrase 
from  M.  Ruoul  Pictet  —  "  prone  to  value  none  but 
paying  facts."  They  know  what  kind  of  preach- 
ing they  want,  and  they  intend  to  have  it.  "If  one 
minister  does  not  supply  it,  they  employ  another. 
It  is  expected  that  ministers  will  preach  on  na- 
tional interests  or  morals  on  Thanksgiving  Day 
and  on  the  Fourth  of  July  ;  but  as  things  are  now 
few  congregations  would  listen,  without  serious 
dissatisfaction,  to  any  thorough  or  adequate  treat- 
ment of  the  subjects  which  are  most  important 
and  vital  for  us  as  a  nation.  After  a  few  such  dis- 
courses there  would  be  an  imperative  demand  for 
sermons  of  the  usual  type.  The  good  people  in 
the  churches  are  weary  and  careworn  when  Sun- 
day comes,  and  wish  to  be  comforted,  soothed,  and 
entertained  by  the  preaching.  And  in  this  com- 
mercial age  they  will  not  "  pay  "  for  preaching 
which  does  not  suit  them.  So  there  are  many 
men  whose  religious  teaching  is  of  the  wisest  who 
have  much  diflBculty  to  live,  and  who  are  entirely 
unable  to  equip  themselves  as  they  should  for 
their  work.  If  there  is  any  new  development  of 
moral  forces  or  increase  of  religious  vitality  in  our 
time,  these  small  companies  of  dissenters  from  the 
popular  religion  will  have  a  close  and  vital  connec- 
tion with  it,  though  not  in  sectarian  ways. 
3 


34        CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

As  to  that  numerous  class  of  people  who  insist 
that  Christianity  is  itself  exhausted  and  outgrown, 
and  that  we  have  already  reached  something  bet- 
ter, they  have  not  developed  anything  that  can 
help  us  in  our  present  needs.  They  do  something 
in  opposing  the  superstitions  and  absurdities  of 
some  church  people,  but  thus  far  their  criticism 
has  been  narrow,  sectarian,  and  unpractical.  The 
priests  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  occupy  a 
position  of  great  importance  in  relation  to  the  new 
conditions  and  tendencies  of  our  national  life.  Al- 
though many  of  them  are  rather  churchmen  than 
American  citizens,  their  influence  is  likely  to  be, 
on  the  whole,  rather  helpful  than  otherwise. 
They  do  a  vast  deal  of  good  work  upon  very  diffi- 
cult material.  Their  course  should  be  critically 
observed,  but  they. deserve  far  more  sympathy 
and  recognition  than  they  receive.  Their  teach- 
ing forbids  consultation  of  the  spirits  of  the  dead, 
and  membership  in  secret  societies.  This  last  re- 
quirement will  keep  many  voters  out  of  the  move- 
ment for  the  inflation  and  debasement  of  the  na- 
tional currency,  as  the  leaders  of  that  enterprise 
make  great  use  of  the  machinery  of  secret  socie- 
ties. 

What  then  can  be  done  ?  Is  our  condition 
hopeless  ?  By  no  means.  Are  we  to  wait,  as 
some  people  urge,  until  these  errors  and  delusions 
have  spent  their  force  ?  They  do  not  tend  to  ex- 
haust themselves.  They  belong  naturally  to  hu- 
man beings  in  the  stages  of  development  to  which 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  35 

those  who  are  affected  by  them  have  attained. 
They  have  no  self-limiting  quality,  but  have 
abundant  power  to  reproduce  and  extend  them- 
selves. Are  we  to  depend  chiefly  upon  force,  as 
employed  in  the  repression  and  punishment  of 
riotous  proceedings  and  crimes  against  property, 
as  the  best  means  for  the  protection  of  society 
and  the  maintenance  of  civilization  ?  No.  It  is 
true  that  all  positive  law  rests  upon  force  in  the 
last  analysis,  and  it  is  often  conservative  and  mer- 
ciful to  enforce  obedience  to  law  at  whatever  cost. 
But  the  value  and  permanence  of  property,  and 
the  vitality  of  other  elements  of  civilization,  de- 
pend upon  settled,  orderly,  and  peaceful  conditions 
of  .society.  If  the  evil  tendencies  I  have  described 
are  not  checked,  if  we  are  to  live  in  a  state  of  con- 
stant apprehension  of  riots  and  conflagrations,  or  if 
we  rely  chiefly  upon  ^rmed  force  to  prevent  such 
outbreaks,  our  legislation  will  necessarily  be  un- 
wholesomely  affected  to  such  an  extent,  and  the 
business  and  industries  of  our  country  so  disturbed 
and  depressed,  that  our  national  condition  would 
have  to  be  regarded  as  little  better  than  the  real 
failure  of  our  institutions.  Other  dangers  than  that 
of  the  pillage  and  destruction  of  our  cities  by 
armed  mobs  may  be  serious  enough  to  tax  the 
vital  resources  of  the  nation  to  the  utmost.  We 
must  somehow  eliminate  and  transmute  a  large 
proportion  of  this  dangerous  and  inflammable  ma- 
terial, and  we  must  greatly  increase  the  healthful 
forces  in  the  life  of  the  nation. 


36        CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

The  evil  of  false  and  foolish  teaching  can  be 
adequately  resisted  only  by  true  teaching  and  wise 
action.  It  is  said  that  persons  who  hold  the  sen- 
timents and  cherish  the  aims  here  depicted  are 
beyond  the  reach  of  argument  or  reason.  That 
is  true  of  many,  probably  of  all,  the  teachers  and 
leaders  of  this  class.  But  it  is  not  true,  as  yet,  of 
the  multitude  from  whom  this  class  is  being  con- 
stantly recruited.  It  is  not  yet  true  of  the  young 
people  who  are  coming  up,  year  by  year,  to  take 
their  places  in  those  i-anks.  The  ideas  and  im- 
pulses which  tend  to  disorder  and  disintegration, 
when  they  have  taken  possession  of  the  minds  of 
men,  do  indeed  constitute  a  craze,  an  epidemic  hal- 
lucination or  contagion  of  unreason  and  folly.  This 
conception  has  been  well  developed,  and  it  gives 
us  one  of  the  most  acute  and  discriminating  no- 
tions of  our  time.  It  is  the  key  to  many  things 
otherwise  inexplicable  in  history.  But  the  cir- 
cumstances, influences,  and  conditions  which  pi'e- 
dispose  or  pi-epare  men  for  the  reception  and  de- 
velopment of  the  germs  of  this  contagion  have 
not  been  sufficiently  considered.  Here  is  a  fact 
of  great  interest  for  us.  The  number  of  those 
who  cannot  be  influenced  by  argument  or  any  di- 
rect intellectual  appeal  is  increasing  from  month 
to  month,  and  it  is  recruited  from  classes  who  are 
still  accessible,  who  could  be  guided  if  there  were 
anybody  to  guide  them  ;  who  could  be  taught  and 
enlightened  if  the  right  means  were  used;  who 
might  be  confii-med  and  established  in  their  now 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  37 

wavering  allegiance  to  truth,  justice,  and  sound 
reason.  There  is  a  vast  field  and  opportunity  for 
successful  work  in  this  direction.  It  waits  only 
the  awakening  of  the  cultivated  classes  to  the  per- 
ils, needs,  and  duties  of  the  hour. 

But  the  people  who  cannot  be  influenced  by  ar- 
gument are  by  no  means  in  a  state  so  hopeless  as 
most  of  our  teachers  believe.  The  truth  is  that 
comparatively  few  men  are  controlled  or  guided 
so  much  by  argument  and  reason  as  by  the  ear- 
nestness, the  convictions,  and  the  confident  activ- 
ity of  those  who  have  made  up  their  minds,  and 
are  heartily  interested  in  a  definite  object.  And 
especially  are  men  influenced  and  attracted  by  the 
volume  and  mass  of  the  teaching  and  movements 
around  them.  They  are  swayed  and  decided  by 
the  continuity  of  attack,  by  the  cumulative  force 
of  the  constant  iteration  of  the  same  idea  in 
varying  forms.  These  things  depend  upon  nat- 
ural laws,  and  the  apostles  of  disorder  are  work- 
ing in  accordance  with  these  laws,  which  are 
always  potent  in  the  propagation  of  feelings,  opin- 
ions, and  convictions.  These  laws  are  not  partial 
to  falsehood  and  folly.  They  lend  themselves  as 
readily  and  efliciently  to  the  dissemination  of  truth 
and  good  sense. 

But  there  is  a  kind  of  fetich  worship  of  the 
power  of  ideas  which  prevails  among  our  culti- 
vated people,  which  leads  them  to  think  that  when 
they  have  demonstrated  the  excellence  and  supe- 
riority of  certain  principles,  by  means  of  a  paper 


38        CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

in  a  review,  or  an  essay  at  a  meeting  of  ministers, 
their  work  is  done,  and  that  the  conquest  of  the 
world  by  their  opinions  is  only  a  matter  of  time  ; 
and  so  they  turn  away,  serenely  triumphant,  to 
await  the  happy  consummation.  But  ideas  have 
little  practical  efficiency  until  they  are  incarnated, 
so  to  speak,  —  made  alive  and  personal  in  men 
and  women  ;  until  a  few  people,  at  least,  care  a 
great  deal  about  them,  and  feel  a  resistless  impulse 
to  their  propagation.  This  impulse  is  precisely 
what  our  cultivated  people  do  not  feel  in  regard 
to  any  ideas  whatever.  Propagandisra  of  any 
kind  repels  them.  This  is  the  weakness  of  our 
nation  to-day,  and  the  source  of  its  greatest  dan- 
ger. The  people  who  believe  in  civilization  are 
giving  away  the  victory  to  their  wild  antagonists 
by  their  own  inaction,  a  delusion  of  their  culture 
which  makes  them  disdain  to  learn  the  use  of  new 
weapons  and  methods.  Culture  itself  is  not  yet 
in  this  country  vital  or  dynamic.  It  lacks  the  im- 
pulse and  virility  necessary  for  its  own  propaga-' 
tion.  It  is  too  dainty  for  a  land  like  ours,  and 
is  inclined  to  be  discouraged  about  the  masses, 
or  else  to  trust  everything  to  "  the  resistless  ope- 
ration of  the  laws  of  progress."  Now  that  is  a 
phrase  merely.  Many  persons  feel  soothed  and 
strengthened  when  they  hear  it,  but  it  does  not 
mean  much.  If  anything  is  done  for  the  improve- 
ment of  life  and  its  conditions  in  .this  country  we 
must  begin,  and  must  be  prepared  for  a  large  and 
persistent  expenditure  of  time,  of  thought,  and  of 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  39 

personal  effort ;  with  the  usual  accompaniments  of 
partial  failure,  of  the  incompetence  of  some  of 
the  agents,  and  of  much  unrecognized  and  unhon- 
ored  toil.  Direct  endeavor  for  tlie  elevation  of 
any  class  is  less  repulsive  after  we  have  heartily 
engaged  in  it.  However  distasteful  it  may  be,  it 
is  the  condition  of  our  success,  and  cannot  be 
safely  postponed  to  a  more  favorable  time.  Such 
work  is  not  so  hopeless  as  some  would  have  us 
believe.  Two  fluids  may  be  kept  permanently 
apart  by  a  thin  membrane  if  both  are  at  rest ;  but 
if  one  is  set  in  motion  the  other  will  pass  through 
the  intervening  wall  and  join  in  the  movement. 
When  there  is  a  vital  advance  on  the  part  of  our 
cultivated  people  new  motions  will  be  set  up  and 
new  centres  of  force  developed  in  the  life  of  the 
nation  at  large.  The  working  people  will  exert 
themselves  for  their  own  improvement  if  we  be- 
gin ;  they  are  not  likely  to  do  so  otherwise. 

We  shall  wholly  fail  if  we  think  we  can  im- 
prove society,  or  any  portion  of  it,  by  any  plan 
which  does  not  require  improvement  on  the  part 
of  the  more  fortunate  and  cultivated  classes. 
Much  of  their  culture  is  superficial  and  unpracti- 
cal, consisting  rather  of  unrelated  fragments  of 
thought,  and  vague  impressions  concerning  what 
is  supposed  to  be  known,  than  of  real  knowledge 
resulting  from  the  ordered  activity  of  a  disciplined 
intelligence.  We  need  a  better  fculture  for  our 
teachers  and  leaders ;  not  merely  more  of  the 
same  kind  they  now  possess,  but   culture   of  a 


40        CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

higher  order.  It  will  not  do  to  confine  our  inter- 
est or  efforts  to  the  lower  strata.  We  must  learn 
how  to  solve  such  pi-oblems  as  pauperism,  or  poor- 
relief,  and  prison  management ;  but  woe  to  our 
nation  if  we  expend  all  our  vitality  upon  theui. 
We  must  do  this  and  have  strength  for  higher 
interests  and  more  constructive  work.  The  lower 
classes  are  now  educating  us.  A  necessary  ten- 
dency and  peril  of  democracy,  of  a  universal  suf- 
frage arrangement  of  society,  is  a  general  medi- 
ocrity, the  adoption  of  low  standards,  a  halting 
of  the  army  of  civilization  while  we  wait  for  the 
camp-followers  to  come  up.  Let  us  distribute 
rations  among  these  if  that  is  best.  But  their 
place  is  not  in  fi-ont,  and  the  head  of  the  column 
must  move  on.  We  must  open  the  way  ahead, 
and  not  merely  fortify  the  rear  of  our  position. 

The  people  who  believe  in  culture,  in  property, 
and  in  order,  that  is  in  civilization,  must  establish 
the  necessary  agencies  for  the  diffusion  of  a  new 
culture.  Capital  must  protect  itself  by  organized 
activities  for  a  new  object,  —  the  education  of  the 
people.  Those  who  possess  property,  and  those 
who  value  it  as  one  of  the  great  forces  and  sup- 
ports of  civilization,  will  be  obliged  to  learn  that 
legislation,  even  if  the  laws  are  properly  enforced, 
is  not  an  adequate  means  for  the  protection  of 
property  and  the  repression  of  the  disorderly  and 
destructive  elements  in  our  society.  Legislation 
itself  is  fast  becoming  a  weapon  in  the  hands  of 
the  hostile  forces ;  and  even  if  it  were  always  the 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  41 

work  of  wise  men  it  is  only  one  factor  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  would  not  give  us  security  without  a 
great  advance  in  the  culture  and  chai'acter  of  the 
people.  Our  present  conditions  cannot  be  per- 
manent. If  they  are  not  improved  they  will  soon 
grow  worse.  The  evils  which  threaten  us  must 
be  studied  and  understood,  and  then  dealt  with 
rationally,  and  some  of  their  sources  must  be 
cut  off. 

The  present  slovenly  and  miserably  inefficient 
procedure  in  dealing  with  tramps,  vagrants,  and 
people  destitute  of  food  and  employment  must  be 
changed  by  taking  some  unit  of  territory,  a  town- 
ship, ward,  or  county,  and  then  confining  all  who 
need  relief  to  the  district  in  which  they  belong  or 
may  be  found.  Labor  which  will  yield  them  food, 
not  wages,  should  be  provided,  and  all  persons 
supplied  with  food  should  be  compelled  to  work. 
As  it  is  now,  a  vast  army  marches  around  the 
land,  refusing  all  work,  and  receiving  far  more 
food  and  money  than  would  be  necessary  to  main- 
tain it  if  the  business  were  organized  on  business 
principles.  Our  country  roads  are  unsafe  for 
women,  and  our  cities  swarm  with  stalwart  beg- 
gars who  threaten  when  their  demands  are  not 
satisfied. 

A  friend  of  mine,  a  missionary  in  one  of  our 
largest  cities,  last  winter  preached  in  a  large  hall 
on  Sunday  evenings,  and  spent  some  hours  each 
Saturday  night  in  'the  streets  and  alleys  of  that 
vicinity.     To  all  who  asked  for  money  to  procure 


42        CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

something  to  eat  or  a  place  to  sleep  he  gave  food 
(when  they  would  take  it;  many  would  accept 
nothing  but  money),  and  secured  for  them  a  com- 
fortable lodging.  Then,  giving  each  applicant  a 
card,  with  time  and  place  of  services  for  the  next 
evening,  he  invited  him  to  attend  the  meeting, 
and  promised  him  supper  and  lodging  for  Sunday 
night  also.  More  than  a  hundred  men  were  thus 
kindly  treated,  but  not  one  of  them  ever  came  to 
the  Sunday  evening  meeting.  My  friend  said 
that  of  the  whole  number  there  was  but  one  who 
seemed  to  be  really  hungry. 

But  there  are  more  types  than  one,  and  we 
must  not  estimate  the  situation  by  one  such  re- 
port alone.  During  the  last  few  years  I  have  my- 
self seen  the  wives  and  children  of  workingmen 
in  country  towns  die  of  inanition,  after  having 
long  subsisted  on  a  little  Indian  meal.  Discovery 
came  too  late.  These  people  met  their  fate  si- 
lently. They  were  known  to  be  poor  and  out  of 
work,  and  "  they  would  not  beg."  Many  persons 
have  died  in  some  regions  of  our  country,  during 
the  last  three  years,  from  disease  induced  by  in- 
sufficient nourishment,  and  many  invalids  among 
the  poor  have  succumbed  to  the  effects  of  scant 
and  unsuitable  food.  A  young  girl,  whose  wages 
as  a  servant  had  procured  a  bare  subsistence  for 
her  mother  and  three  small  children,  lost  her  place 
recently  by  the  death  of  her  mistress.  Unable  to 
find  employment,  and  distracted  by  the  hunger  of 
the  children,  she  applied  to  a  friend  of  mine  for 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  43 

advice.     Said  she,  "  Mrs. ,  what  is  the  right 

way  for  people  to  live  when  they  can  get  nothing 
to  eat  ?  "  On  behalf  of  her  inarticulate  class  I 
repeat  her  question.  As  teachers  of  the  poor  we 
should  be  prepared  to  offer  them  a  philosophy  of 
life  suitect  to  their  circumstances.  We  say  truly 
that  some  of  their  theories  are  wild,  and  their 
aims  fatal  to  their  own  interests.  But  we  must 
give  voice  to  the  plea  which  they  ought  to  make, 
and  ourselves  champion  the  aims  which  would  be 
wise  and  right  for  them.  Again  the  question. 
What  are  they  ?  If  we  should  have  for  several 
years  a  succession  of  abundant  crops,  the  pressure 
and  urgency  of  some  of  our  dangers  would  be 
lessened.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  have  unfavor- 
able seasons  and  continued  industrial  depression, 
these  difficulties  would  be  aggravated.  It  is  not 
wise  to  depend  for  safety  upon  chances  which  are 
in  no  degree  under  our  control. 

I  am  aware  that  my  arraignment  of  the  inade- 
quacy of  the  means  now  being  used  requires  some 
suggestion  of  more  vigorous  methods  of  action  for 
our  national  regeneration,  or  for  a  decided  in- 
crease of  healthful  activities  in  the  intellectual 
and  moral  life  of  our  country.  A  society  with  a 
plan  or  method  of  work  resembling  that  of  the 
New  England  Loyal  Publication  Society,  which 
did  so  much  to  reinforce  the  national  sentiment 
during  our  civil  war,  could  now  render  quite  as  effi- 
cient service.  Few  people,  except  newspaper 
men,  know  to  what  extent  most  newspapers  out  of 


44        CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

the  cities  are  made  up,  or  supplied  with  matter, 
by  the  mere  accident  of  proximity,  or  readiness  to 
the  editor's  scissors,  of  articles  of  suitable  length, 
already  printed,  so  that  they  can  be  rapidly 
glanced  over  and  conveniently  transferred  to  his 
paper.  I  would  have  a  society  or  arrangement  of 
some  kind  for  printing  and  sending  to  the  coun- 
try newspapers  everywhere  a  series  of  broadsides 
or  sheets  filled  with  short  articles,  plainly  written, 
direct  and  spirited  in  style,  without  eloquence  or 
bookishness,  and  with  few  figures  of  speech ;  set- 
ting forth  and  repeating  in  ever-varying  forms  the 
few  great  simple  truths  and  facts  which  explain 
our  present  national  condition,  especially  in  con- 
nection with  such  subjects  as  debt,  paper  money, 
resumption  of  specie  payments,  and  the  relation 
of  individual  habits  and  expenditures  to  national 
welfare. 

We  need  also  the  publication  of  a  small,  low- 
priced  newspaper,  for  circulation  in  all  parts  of 
the  country  ;  to  be  printed  in  the  best  style,  giv- 
ing a  good  digest  of  the  most  important  news  ;  to 
be  dedicated  to  the  propagation  and  definite  teach- 
ing of  strict  honesty,  wise  economy,  fraternal  self- 
denial  and  a  religious  devotion  to  our  country,  and 
the  interests  of  a  nobler  civilization  than  we  have 
yet  attained ;  a  paper  for  the  people,  which  shall 
have  for  its  aim  the  development  of  a  national 
spirit  and  temper,  of  a  practical,  capable,  and 
wholesome  nature,  leading  men  away  from  empty 
theories  of  millennial  progress  and  attainments  to 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  45 

manly  self-reliance  and  intelligent  recognition  of 
the  real  conditions  of  human  life  in  this  world  ;  a 
paper,  in  short,  which  sliall  represent  and  propa- 
gate principles,  sentiments,  and  activities  in  ac- 
cord with  the  central  ideas  of  this  article. 

We  need  some  small  books  on  subjects  con- 
nected with  political  economy,  which  shall  teach 
what  is  known,  however  little  that  may  prove  to 
be,  and  not  merely  perplex  the  brains  of  work- 
ingmen  by  reporting  the  speculations  of  all  the 
schools.  We  need  a  gi-eat  deal  of  elementary 
teaching,  and  should  have  books  written  for  plain 
people,  by  authors  who  can  drive  straight  at  the 
mark  and  stop  when  they  have  done. 

The  persuasive  power  of  public  speaking,  lect- 
uring, and  preaching  is  of  course  indispensable. 
It  should  be  employed  in  the  education  of  the 
people  as  fast  as  honest  men  who  have  a  real 
grasp  upon  these  principles  can  be  found  to  speak 
clearly  and  usefully.  People  everywhere  who  per- 
ceive these  needs  should  meet,  confer  with  each 
other,  and  begin  to  work. 

The  central  or  fundamental  philosophical  truth 
which  underlies  the  mental  and  moral  culture 
which  the  age  requires  is  the  truth  of  the  moral 
order  of  the  universe.  Human  life  belongs  to  an 
actual  order,  —  a  cosmos,  not  a  chaos;  and  this 
order  is  a  moral  order,  and  tends  to  and  prefers 
truth,  justice,  and  righteousness.  •  The  opposite 
error,  which  has  misled  a  large  portion  of  Amer- 
ican society,  is  the  opinion  that  the  moral  order  to 


46        CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

which  man's  life  belongs  is  subjective  only ;  that 
nothing  is  true  or  right  in  itself,  but  only  as  it 
seems  so  to  us ;  that  there  is  no  real  standard  of 
human  conduct,  only  a  conventional  one;  and 
that  if  men  would  generally  agree  to  it  the  rela- 
tions and  nature  of  right  and  wrong  might  be 
reversed.  This  is  what  is  really  fatal  in  unbelief 
in  our  time,  —  not  the  rejection  of  the  creed  of 
my  church  or  yours,  but  the  loss  of  the  perception 
and  assurance  of  the  truth  that  the  laws  of  nat- 
ure and  the  inevitable  working  of  the  forces  of 
the  universe  are  hostile  to  falsehood  and  inj  ustice ; 
that  extreme  individualism  is  now  abnormal  and 
self-destructive;  and  that  fraternal  or  social  jus- 
tice is  provided  for  and  required  by  the  constitu- 
tion of  things,  by  the  laws  of  an  order  which  man 
did  not  make  and  cannot  change.  There  is  a 
great  deal  to  be  said  on  the  other  side.  If  there 
were  not,  we  should  have  no  difficulties  or  prob- 
lems, and  no  such  arduous  task  before  us  here  in 
the  education  of  the  people  and  their  emancipa- 
tion from  error  and  folly. 

We  must  insist  on  the  necessity  of  sincerity  and 
of  knowledge  on  the  part  of  religious  teachers. 
We  need  the  development  of  a  religion  for  this 
world,  for  the  needs  and  duties  of  life  here. 
Strictly  speaking  we  have  no  knowledge  of  an- 
other world  or  a  future  life.  We  may  believe  pro- 
foundly, but  we  do  not  know.  Belief,  trust,  and 
faith  are  also,  as  truly  as  knowledge,  great  dy- 
namio  forces  in  human  life,  and  have  a  value  of 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  47 

their  own.  We  must  have  a  religion  and  moral 
philosophy  which  will  inspire  patriotism,  and  hold 
us  strenuously  to  the  work  of  making  this  country 
a  clean,  orderly,  and  wholesome  dwelling-place, 
school,  and  home  for  human  beings.  The  relig- 
ious people  and  the  scientific  people  are  alike  fool- 
ish and  blind  when  they  do  not  see  their  equal 
need  of  each  other  as  allies  against  the  assault 
of  forces  which  are  equally  hostile  to  both.  All 
who  will  work,  for  the  health  of  the  nation  must 
be  welcomed  and  encouraged.  What  is  good  and 
effective  in  the  church  and  its  teaching  will  dis- 
entangle itself  somewhat  from  that  which  is  life- 
less and  worldly,  if  there  is  anywhere  a  distinct 
forward  movement.  The  secular  press  should  crit- 
icise frankly  the  preaching  of  the  day,  in  so  far  as 
it  concerns  morality  and  national  interests,  and 
we  must  all  expect  the  most  rigid  scrutiny  of  what 
we  teach.  We  must  hasten  the  introduction  into 
religious  speech  (varying  a  little  Professor  Clarke 
Maxwell's  expression)  "  of  words  and  phrases  con- 
sistent with  true  ideas  about  nature,  instead  of 
others  implying  false  ideas." 

The  people  who  believe  that  the  utilitarian 
doctrines  provide  a  sufficient  basis  for  morality 
should  feel  an  imperative  requirement,  in  the  cir- 
cumstances of  our  country,  for  the  development  of 
those  doctrines.  So  far  as  they  are  capable  of 
becoming  a  religious  inspiration  and  motive  for 
men,  they  should  be  made  available  to  the  utmost 
possible  extent.     They  do  not  yet  constitute  a 


48        CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES 

religion,  except  perhaps  to  a  few  persons,  who 
represent  in  a  rare  degree  what  is  best  and  high- 
est in  American  civilization.  We  need  work,  just 
here,  by  a  master's  hand,  in  setting  forth  the  char- 
acter, meaning,  scope,  and  practical  requirements 
of  the  utilitarian  doctrines  in  relation  to  the  cir- 
cumstances and  conditions  of  life  in  this  country 
to-day.  What  does  utilitarianism  teach,  and  why 
should  men  regard  and  obey  it  ? 

A  change  in  the  reading  of  the  people  is  neces- 
sary, if  we  are  to  improve  the  national  life.  Men 
who  could  really  teach  English  literature,  and 
show  people  how  to  read  and  understand  it,  so  as 
to  receive  culture  from  it,  would  be  among  the 
most  valuable  missionaries  of  the  new  oi-der  of 
things.  If  there  are  such  men  it  would  be  profita- 
ble to  employ  them. 

Men  of  property  or  wealth,  capitalists,  and  peo- 
ple of  culture  who  understand  the  value  of  prop- 
erty in  civilization  must  accept  a  great  and  direct 
responsibility  in  regard  to  all  matters  pertaining 
to  the  moral  education  of  the  people.  Their 
course  will  decide  what  our  national  condition 
shall  be  for  some  time  to  come.  We  have  been 
too  much  inclined  to  hold  a  few  half-starved  cler- 
gymen chiefly  responsible  for  the  moral  culture  of 
the  masses.  There  is  no  good  reason  for  making 
self-sacrifice  and  unrecompensed  labor  for  such  ob- 
jects the  business  of  ministers  exclusively. 

People  will  say,  All  this  will  require  a  great 
deal   of   money.     True ;  but  it  will  save   much 


IN  AMERICAN  LIFE.  49 

more.  If  the  future  of  this  country  is  to  be 
evolved  from  the  elements  and  tendencies  of  the 
present,  then,  unless  something  like  what  is  here 
outlined  is  undertaken  and  carried  forward,  the 
loss  of  property  (not  to  speak  of  moral  losses)  will 
be  greater  than  the  amount  of  money  that  would 
be  required  for  an  educational  enterprise  on  a 
larger  scale  than  any  the  past  has  known.  We 
ought  to  expend  a  million  of  dollars  in  this  work 
during  the  next  three  years,  as  a  beginning.  It 
would  be  a  most  profitable  business  enterprise,  — 
considered  merely  as  an  investment  of  money,  — 
on  account  of  the  pecuniary  losses  which  it  would 
prevent. 

I  observe  much  complaint  lately  of  the  difficul- 
ties involved  in  universal  suffrage.  They  are 
doubtless  great.  If  the  world  were  wholly  differ- 
ent we  might  do  fine  things.  But  we  must  have 
methods  that  can  be  used  as  things  are,  — to  be- 
gin with,  at  least.  The  age  is  probably  the  most 
unteachable  since  the  Revival  of  Learning.  But 
we  can  work  to-day  only  where  we  are.  We  are 
shut  up  to  this  universal  suffrage  organization  of 
society,  and  must  find  out  how  to  make  it  serve 
the  ends  for  which  society  exists.  The  franchise 
is  not  likely  to  be  narrowed  greatly  in  our  time. 
If  America  were  a  jungle  of  human  tigers,  still  it 
is  our  countr}'^  and  the  country  of  our  children, 
and  its  people,  however  undeveloped  and  intract- 
able, are  our  neighbors,  brethren,  and  fellow-citi- 
zens.    We  must  live  in  some  relations  with  them, 

4 


50        CERTAIN  DANGEROUS  TENDENCIES. 

and  to  make  these  relations  orderly,  beneficent, 
and  just  is  worth  all  it  can  cost.  The  union  of 
the  States  is  geographical,  official,  and  mechan- 
ical ;  the  unity  of  the  people  must  be  vital,  or- 
ganic, and  spiritual.  Such  unity  is  not  yet  act- 
ual, only  potential. 


THE  NATIONALS,  THEIR  ORIGIN  AND 
THEIR  AIMS. 

The  history  of  the  National  Party  begins  with 
the  financial  legislation  of  our  civil  war.  The 
equipment  of  the  Union  soldiery,  and  other  prep- 
arations for  national  defense,  required  the  expen- 
diture of  vast  sums  beyond  what  the  national  treas- 
ury could  supply.  The  government  issued  printed 
notes  —  promises  to  pay  —  to  the  amount  of  many 
millions  of  dollars,  enacting  that  these  notes  should 
be  regarded  and  used  as  a  legal  tender  in  all  the 
ordinary  business  of  the  people,  but  excepting 
from  this  provision  certain  dues  and  payments  of 
the  government  for  which  coin  was  required.  As 
the  war  assumed  greater  proportions  the  necessary 
purchases  became  enormous  in  extent,  and  the 
remarkable  discovery  was  made  that  everybody 
might  easily  become  rich  by  selling  goods  to  the 
government  at  prices  many  times  greater  than 
their  real  value.  It  was  easy  to  print  the  paper 
promises  to  pay,  and  the  government  scattered 
them  with  lavish  hand  among  the  people.  There 
was  an  unexampled  expansion  and  activity  in  all 
kinds  of  business.  Everybody  could  obtain  em- 
ployment at  high  wages.  There  was  a  new  mar- 
ket for  everything,  and  the  demand  seemed  un- 


62  THE  NATIONALS, 

limited.  Men  counted  their  new  wealth  by  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  and  millions.  It  consisted  of 
the  evidences  of  the  government's  indebtedness, 
that  is,  of  their  own.  The  result  of  the  war  was 
for  some  time  uncertain.  No  day  had  been  fixed 
for  the  payment  of  the  legal-tender  notes,  and 
their  purchasing  power  declined  as  the  numbers 
issued  were  multiplied.  The  war  ended.  The 
government  went  out  of  business,  that  is,  it  was 
no  longer  a  purchaser  to  any  great  extent ;  the 
new  market  was  closed.  Most  of  the  people  of 
the  country  had  been  really  in  the  employ  of  the 
government  during  the  war,  nearly  all  traders  and 
speculators  receiving  lavish  salaries  in  the  excess- 
ive profits  of  their  business.  Now  everybody  was 
discharged.  The  hasty,  desperate,  make-shift 
financial  legislation  at  the  beginning  of  the  war 
had  produced  a  great  "  expansion  of  the  cur- 
rency," filling  the  hands  of  the  people  every- 
where with  the  new  paper  money.  But  the  vast 
amount  in  circulation  had  to  be  reduced ;  some 
arrangement  for  complying  with  the  promise  to 
pay  (printed  on  the  face  of  every  note)  had  to  be 
adopted,  or  the  notes  would  soon  be  worthless. 
Then  came  the  contraction  of  the  currency  by  the 
retirement  of  some  of  the  legal-tender  notes.  The 
new  taxes  were  a  great  burden ;  the  best  invest- 
ments produced  but  small  profits  ;  and  we  were 
rudely  awakened  from  splendid  dreams  of  increas- 
ing prosperity  to  distasteful  economies  and  com- 
parative poverty.     The   nation   began,  in  great 


THEIR  ORIGIN  AND  THEIR  AIMS.         63 

depression  and  bewilderment,  the  payment  of  its 
tremendous  war  debt.  Tlie  people  had  generally 
used  the  government's  promises  to  pay  as  real 
money,  vaguely  considering  the  new  paper  cur- 
rency as  an  addition  to  the  actual  wealth  of  the 
country,  without  fully  realizing  that  the  people 
had  to  pay  the  debt  of  the  nation.  There  were 
multitudes  who  did  not  understand  why  the  vast 
expansion  of  business  and  industry  should  be  tem- 
porary ;  why  the  "  prosperity  of  the  war-time " 
should  not  continue  forever.  There  was  no  ade- 
quate effort  to  teach  them.  They  had  been  in- 
credulous when  the  first  signs  of  the  inevitable 
decline  and  collapse  appeared.  They  had  lost  the 
habit  of  hard  labor,  and  when  they  found  that  the 
days  of  contracts  and  jobs,  and  of  easy,  profuse 
living  were  past  they  were  profoundly  dissatisfied. 
In  that  dissatisfaction  was  the  oi'igin  of  the  discon- 
tent, the  grievances,  hopes,  and  purposes  of  the  peo- 
ple who  constitute  the  mass  of  the  national  party 
of  to-day.  The  stream  has  received  some  important 
tributaries  in  later  times,  but  this  was  its  source. 

It  took  some  little  time  to  formulate  the  new 
feeling.  But  it  was  soon  discovered  that  when 
the  paper  money  was  abundant  the  country  was 
prosperous,  and  that  the  first  contraction  of  the 
currency  and  the  decline  in  business  were  coinci- 
dent in  time,  and  were  therefore  related  to  each 
other  as  cause  and  effect.  It  was  affirmed  that  if 
the  paper  money  had  been  made  a  full  legal  ten- 
der, that  is,  if  it  had  been  received  by  the  gov- 


54  THE  NATIONALS, 

ernmenfc  for  all  dues  and  used  in  payment  of  all 
claims,  it  would  always  have  been  equal  to  gold  in 
value  or  purchasing  power.  The  legislation  pro- 
viding that  coin  should  be  used  in  the  payment  of 
duties,  and  of  the  interest  on  national  bonds,  was 
denounced  as  injurious  to  the  people,  as  was  also 
the  act  establishing  national  banks.  A  feeling  of 
opposition  to  the  payment  of  debts  which  were 
incurred  during  the  period  of  the  inflation  of  the 
currency  became  very  strong,  especially  in  the 
West.  The  continued  and  increasing  depression 
of  business  and  of  industry  has  deepened  and 
strengthened  these  tendencies,  and  the  time  has 
been  in  many  ways  propitious  for  their  growth. 

A  history  of  the  paper-money  delusion  from  its 
origin,  through  the  various  stages  of  its  influence 
upon  both  the  great  political  parties  of  the  coun- 
try, with  a  careful  study  of  their  platforms  and  of 
the  utterances  of  their  leading  men  upon  financial 
subjects  during  the  last  seventeen  years,  includ- 
ing a  review  of  the  development  of  allied  influ- 
ences and  of  the  effect  of  all  these  tendencies 
upon  the  national  thought  and  life,  would  be  a 
most  instructive  and  valuable  work,  but  it  must 
be  left  to  other  hands.  What  is  here  undertaken 
is  a  presentation  or  report  of  the  specific  opinions, 
grievances,  illusions,  hopes,  and  purposes  of  the 
people  who  are  identified  with  the  national  party. 
In  making  this  report  I  have  as  far  as  possible 
used  the  exact  words  of  my  neighbors  and  fellow- 
citizens  who  bold  these  opinions  ;  and  when  ver- 


THEIR  ORIGIN  AND   THEIR  AIMS.         55 

bal  changes  were  necessary  I  have  endeavored  to 
preserve  their  thoughts  and  ideas  with  scrupulous 
accuracy.  No  part  of  the  materials  for  this  report 
is  taken  from  newspapers  or  printed  documents, 
or  from  public  addresses.  During  the  last  few 
weeks  I  have  had  very  full  and  satisfactory  con- 
versations with  thirty-four  workingmen  who  are 
earnest  adherents  of  the  new  national  party.  The 
number  includes  residents  of  three  different  States, 
Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  New  Jersey.  I  am 
personally  acquainted  with  all  of  them.  They  are 
natives  of  this  country,  and  men  of  good  repute 
for  honesty  and  general  morality.  Most  of  them 
are  poor,  and  they  all  work  with  their  hands. 
They  have  what  is  usually  called  in  this  country 
a  good  common-school  education,  and  most  of  them 
have  more  than  this.  More  than  half  have  been 
teachers.  They  are  of  all  ages,  from  thirty -two 
to  fifty-seven.  What  is  here  presented  was  ex- 
pressed in  answer  to  my  questions  on  all  the  sub- 
jects brought  forward.  In  every  instance  I  re- 
ceived the  utmost  courtesy,  with  permission  to 
communicate  to  the  public  the  information  thus 
given  to  me.  I  used  a  note-book  and  pencil  as  we 
talked,  recording  as  fully  as  possible  what  was 
said,  often  repeating  the  questions  and  reading  my 
memoranda  to  my  neighbor  for  his  approval.  On 
most  essential  points  there  was  substantial  agree- 
ment among  all  these  men,  but  I  have  noted  some 
differences  of  individual  opinion  and  aim.  Here 
are  the  notes  :  — 


66  THE  NATIONALS. 

BANKS   AND  BANKING. 

"  The  national  party  is  the  result  of  a  great  up- 
rising of  the  people.  The  industrial  classes  are 
becoming  enlightened.  It  is  a  movement  from 
the  bottom  of  society.  We  have  no  leaders  as 
yet,  and  it  is  probably  better  so.  The  movement 
may  develop  leaders  by  and  by.  It  has  grown 
thus  far  by  talks  between  neighbors,  and  by  the 
influence  of  newspapers  and  printed  documents. 
We  have  one  weekly  paper,  with  a  circulation  of 
six  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  copies,  and  an  in- 
crease each  week  of  twenty  thousand.  We  are 
organizing  in  every  school  district  in  many  States, 
and  in  every  ward  of  the  cities.  We  wish  to  abol- 
ish the  national  banks.  All  the  commercial  pan- 
ics in  our  history  have  been  caused  largely  by  the 
system  of  state  and  national  banking.  The  bank- 
ers deposit  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  at  Wash- 
ington, and  the  government  gives  them  back 
ninety  thousand  dollars  in  bank-notes  for  the  bare 
cost  of  printing,  say  one  per  cent.  The  govern- 
ment pays  them  six  per  cent,  on  the  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  Then  they  have  ninety  thou- 
sand dollars  to  loan  at  the  legal  rate  of  interest, 
and  as  much  more  as  they  can  get.  They  receive 
from  twenty-five  to  fifty  per  cent.,  and  sometimes 
one  hundred  per  cent.,  per  annum  on  their  origi- 
nal investment.  We  want  absolute  money,  not  a 
promise  to  pay ;  would  have  gold,  silver,  and 
paper  all  issued  directly  by  the  government,  with- 


THEIR  ORIGIN  AND  THEIR  AIMS.         57 

ont  the  intervention  of  any  banking  corporation  ; 
the  legend  to  be,  This  is  a  Dollar  (or  whatever 
the  amount  may  be),  making  it  a  legal  tender  in 
payment  of  all  dues  and  claims  whatever.  Of 
course  we  shall  need  new  legislation  for  such  a 
currency.  This  national  absolute  money  would 
buy  anything  in  any  market  of  the  world  with 
one  fourth  or  one  half  of  one  per  cent,  discount  in 
exchange.  There  are  about  two  thousand  national 
banks,  and  they  now  have  a  surplus  fund  of  six- 
teen hundred  millions  of  dollars.  The  bankers 
have  received  so  much  interest  that  nearly  all  ex- 
isting deposits  are  clear  profit ;  that  is,  they  have 
cost  them  nothing.  The  masses  of  mankind  are 
jtrodden  under  foot  and  enslaved  by  a  vicious  finan- 
cial system,  and  we  are  tending  to  the  low  condi- 
tions of  the  older  nations.  Combinations  of  cap- 
italists and  unfavorable  legislation  crush  the  la 
borer.  The  beginning  of  these  evils  is  the  fallacy 
of  a  gold  basis.  There  is  not  enough  gold  for  all 
the  world's  money  ;  if  there  were  it  would  be  all 
right.  Banks  may  have  done  good  in  early  times 
in  the  West,  but  our  advanced  civilization  requires 
a  currency  not  based  upon  coin.  We  favor  the 
immediate  repeal  of  the  resumption  act.  With 
national  absolute  money  no  resumption  of  specie 
payments  would  be  required.  The  bullionists 
favor  resumption  and  contraction  ;  they  bring  gold 
to  par  by  their  designing  manipulations.  It  is 
no  advantage  to  the  people  to  have  gold  at  par. 
European  capitalists  have  influenced  the  financial 


58  THE  NATIONALS, 

legislation  of  our  country  a  great  deal.  Their 
design  is  to  break  up  our  republican  government. 
We  have  positive  proof  that  a  man  came  over 
from  England  with  half  a  million  of  money  to 
oppose  the  passage  of  the  silver  bill ;  but  he  found 
that  it  would  do  no  good.  History  shows  that  no 
country  has  ever  prospered  on  a  coin  basis." 

FKIENDS   AND   FOES. 

"  "We  have  some  of  the  most  talented  men  in 
political  economy  with  us,  but  not  many.  Profes- 
sional men,  such  as  clergymen,  are  not  enough  in- 
terested in  these  matters  to  investigate  the  real 
condition  of  the  laboring  classes  and  their  needs. 
The  masses  are  sufficiently  intelligent  and  morally 
educated  to  see  that  class  legislation  or  any  injus- 
tice would  be  fatal  to  themselves.  The  mass  of 
mankind  have  common  sense.  It  requires  no 
special  talent  for  investigation  to  enable  men  to 
understand  what  is  necessary  for  their  own  inter- 
ests in  such  matters.  When  members  of  Con- 
gress begin  to  legislate  in  favor  of  the  moneyed 
class  their  constituents  ought  to  be  able  to  say, 
Stop  !  that  is  not  what  you  were  emploji-ed  to  do. 
Legislators  should  execute  the  wishes  of  the  peo- 
ple who  elect  them.  We  favor  shortening  the 
hours  of  labor.  Political  economists  say  that  four 
hours  a  day  would  probably  be  adequate  to  main- 
tain all  mankind  in  comfort,  and  give  them  some 
of  the  luxuries  of  life,  providing  richly  for  the 
helpless." 


THEIR   ORIGIN  AND   THEIR  AIMS.         69 
INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENTS. 

"  We  would  have  the  government  begin  imme- 
diately the  construction  of  extensive  works  of  in- 
ternal improvement.  The  Erie  Canal  should  be 
enlarged  to  a  ship  canal  suflBcient  for  vessels  of 
two  thousand  tons  burden.  A  canal  of  the  same 
capacity  should  be  constructed  across  the  State  of 
Michigan,  and  another  across  Northern  Florida." 

MONEY  AND  BONDS. 

"  I  do  not  undertake  to  speak  for  the  national 
party ;  there  are  differences  of  opinion  on  many 
points  among  those  who  are  working  together  in 
this  movement.  I  would  not  permit  individuals 
or  corporations  to  engage  in  any  kind  of  banking 
enterprise  ;  not  even  for  exchange,  or  to  receive 
deposits.  All  such  business  should  be  conducted 
by  the  government.  The  value  of  gold  and  silver 
coin  is  in  the  government  stamp  upon  it,  and  not 
in  the  intrinsic  worth  of  the  metal.  Money  should 
be  made  of  material  which  has  no  intrinsic  value. 
The  contraction  of  the  currency  is  the  greatest 
cause  of  the  prostration  of  industry.  The  na- 
tional bonds  are  a  fraud  upon  the  people,  and 
Rothschild  knew  it  at  first.  The  5-20  bonds  were 
originally  to  be  paid  in  greenbacks,  and  only  their 
interest  in  coin,  but  by  a  change  in  legislation  the 
principal  was  afterwards  required  to  be  paid  in 
coin.  The  bonds  cost  holders  thirty-five  cents  on 
the  dollar  in  gold,  and  by  laws  contracting  the 


60  THE  NATIONALS, 

currency  the  bonds  have  been  made  worth  more 
than  gold.  The  holders  have  already  received 
more  than  the  cost  of  the  bonds,  and  still  hold 
them." 

GOVEKNMENTAL  OWNERSHIP. 

"  The  government  is  a  great  commune.  All 
railroads,  canals,  and  means  of  commercial  trans- 
portation, and  all  mines  and  land,  should  belong 
to  the  government.  There  should  be  no  individ- 
ual ownership  in  land,  but  only  of  improvements. 
There  should  be  no  law  for  the  collection  of  in- 
terest. The  amount  of  money  in  circulation 
should  be  increased  by  the  government  issuing  as 
much  absolute  money  as  is  needed  by  the  people, 
and  paying  it  out  for  all  government  expenses, 
and  for  the  wages  of  laborers  employed  on  public 
works.  Resumption  is  a  speculation  of  the  capi- 
talists. There  is  no  need  of  specie  payments. 
The  people  have  not  asked  for  the  measure  ;  it  is 
forced  upon  them.  The  resumption  act  should  be 
immediately  repealed.  All  history  shows  that  in 
order  to  maintain  specie  payments  we  must  have 
more  specie  than  paper  money.  There  should  be 
enough  money  to  give  the  people  a  sufficient  me- 
dium of  exchange.  We  should  pay  the  bonds  in 
greenbacks  as  far  as  possible.  If  the  legislation 
changing  the  nature  of  the  bonds  and  requiring 
their  payment  in  coin  was  right,  then  counter- 
legislation  would  be." 


THEIR  ORIGIN  AND  THEIR  AIMS.         61 
PKOHIBITION  OF   LARGE  FORTUNES. 

"  All  officers  should  be  elected  by  the  people  di- 
rectly, and  no  law  should  take  effect  until  it  has 
been  submitted  to  the  people  and  been  approved 
by  them.  We  should  have  whatever  legislation  is 
necessary  for  imposing  an  income  tax  graduated 
so  as  not  to  touch  small  incomes,  to  grow  heavier 
for  larger  fortunes,  and  to  be  made  absolutely  pro- 
hibitive for  accumulations  beyond  a  certain  limit. 
No  man  should  be  permitted  to  hold  more  land 
than  he  uses,  and  the  acquisition  of  great  fortunes 
should  be  made  impossible.  One  of  our  greatest 
dangers  is  the  power  of  a  landed  aristocracy." 

REPRESENTATION  OF  CLASSES. 

"  All  classes  should  be  represented  in  our  na- 
tional legislature  in  proportion  to  their  numbers. 
Legislation  by  lawyers  is  always  devoted  to  the 
interests  of  their  own  class.  The  people  of  cult- 
ure in  this  country  underestimate  the  intelligencei 
of  the  masses.  Capitalists  could  buy  working- 
men's  votes  as  easily  as  they  now  buy  those  of 
lawyers:  we  shall  liave  to  depend  largely  upon 
the  effect  of  the  opposition  between  different 
classes  for  checking  any  tendency  to  excess,  injus- 
tice, or  corruption.  Capitalists  feel  like  kings  and 
aristocrats,  and  regard  the  workingmen  as  their 
slaves.  If  these  evils  cannot  be  removed  by  legis- 
lation, it  will  be  done  in  some  other  way.  If  peo- 
ple dread  war  or  mob -law,  they  should  help  the 


62  THE  NATIONALS, 

workingmen  overthrow  the  money  power.  Capi- 
talists dread  nothing  so  much  as  the  uprising  of 
the  masses.  We  have  two  thousand  baukers  rep- 
resenting two  billions  of  capital." 

CULTIVATED   PEOPLE  ANTAGONISTIC. 

"  The  college  men  are  not  in  the  national 
movement,  rnd  usually  misunderstand  it  entirely. 
Their  education  destroys  natural  perception  and 
judgment;  so  that  cultivated  people  are  one- 
sided, and  their  judgment  is  often  inferior  to  that 
of  the  working  people.  History  shows  that  all 
through  the  ages  the  evolution  of  new  ideas  has 
come  from  the  lower  classes,  the  uneducated.  We 
should  naturally  look  outside  of  the  professions 
for  the  leaders  of  a  new  movement.  Professional 
men  are  usually  against  us.  The  uneducated  are 
more  accessible,  more  easily  influenced,  than  the 
educated.  Cultured  people  have  made  up  their 
minds,  and  are  hard  to  move.  There  should  be  a 
check  upon  Chinese  immigration.  Our  civilization 
cannot  maintain  itself  in  contact  vnth  Chinese  civ- 
ilization. That  will  survive  where  ours  cannot, 
and  if  we  live  together  we  shall  have  to  conform 
to  their  civilization." 

MONEY  AND  CONSTITUTIONS. 

"  For  three  hundred  years  the  progress  of  civil- 
ized nations  has  been  in  the  direction  of  absolute 
money.  Money  should  be  composed  of  some  ma- 
terial that  is  not  in  itself  precious  or  commercially 


THEIR  ORIGIN  AND  THEIR  AIMS.         63 

valuable.  Constitutional  provisions  are  of  little 
importance  compared  with  the  direct  expression 
of  the  will  of  the  people.  The  real  law  is  not 
written  or  printed.  Popular  feeling  is  really  the 
law  rather  any  statute." 

HAPPINESS  AND   LOST  LUGGAGE. 

"  Happiness  is  the  legal  tender  of  the  soul. 
Four  hours  a  day  is  enough  for  anybody  to  work, 
but  people  should  work  every  day.  To  rest  on 
Sunday,  or  one  day  each  week,  is  wrong.  Gov- 
ernment should  own  and  operate  the  railroads  of 
the  country.  We  could  then  recover  the  value  of 
trunks  if  they  were  lost  in  transportation.  Now 
it  is  often  difficult  or  impossible.  Burning  up  the 
money  when  it  was  called  in  to  contract  the  cur- 
rency, instead  of  sending  it  out  again  to  circulate 
among  the  people,  is  the  real  cause  of  the  distress 
of  the  country.  No  lawyer  should  be  elected  to  a 
a  place  in  any  legislative  body." 

HELP  FROM  THE   SPIRIT   WORLD. 

"  We  might  obtain  much  help  from  the  spirit 
world.  There  is  a  Congress  there  of  all  our  great 
statesmen,  who  have  passed  away.  They  see  the 
future  and  know  the  motives  of  men,  and  they 
preside  over  the  affairs  of  our  country.  They 
have  already  had  much  to  do  with  our  national 
affairs.  The  spirit  of  Washington  once  sent  a 
medium  to  Lincoln  with  militaiy  plans  which  the 
president  executed.    It  would  be  wise  to  put  the 


64  TEE  NATIONALS, 

management  of  the  Indians  wholly  under  the  di- 
rection of  the  spirits.  We  might  obtain  very  great 
aid  from  the  spirit  world  in  regard  to  all  difficult 
questions  connected  with  the  science  of  govern- 
ment. The  national  movement  is  likely  to  go 
farther  than  most  people  foresee." 

GOVERNMENTAL.  PAWNBROKING. 

"  The  government  might  loan  money  to  the 
people  to  the  extent  of  half  the  value  of  goods 
deposited  in  government  warehouses  (appraised  by 
competent  men,  and  to  be  held  until  redeemed). 
We  should  use  gold,  silver,  and  paper,  till  the 
metals  naturally  drop  out  of  circulation.  Paper 
money  will  soon  expel  gold  and  silver  money  from 
the  country.  Government  should  not  require  more 
than  three  per  cent,  interest  on  loans  to  the  peo- 
ple; many  of  the  nationals  would  have  interest 
prohibited  by  a  provision  in  the  Constitution  of 
the  country." 

THE  MONEY  POWER   TO   BE   BROKEN   DOWN. 

"  The  object  of  the  greenback  party  is  to  break 
down  the  money  power,  politically,  commercially, 
and  industrially.  The  government  should  build 
a  railroad  from  Norfolk,  Virginia,  to  California, 
and  should  take  possession  of  all  railroads,  canals, 
and  telegraphs.  All  should  be  operated  at  cost,  — 
without  profit.  We  make  no  account  of  constitu- 
tional difficulties  in  the  way  of  these  things,  or 
of  what  the  Constitution  forbids  or  allows.     It  is 


THEIR  ORIGIN  AND  THEIR  AIMS.         65 

not  best  to  make  many  constitutional  provisions. 
Constitutions  are  things  to  have  discussions  about, 
and  to  form  the  subject  of  points  of  order  in  de- 
bate, rather  than  for  practical  eflBciency  or  ob- 
ligation. They  should  be  composed,  as  nearly  as 
may  be,  of  undoubted  basic  principles.  These  ob- 
jects should  be  attained  either  by  cooperation  or 
by  communal  organization.  The  greenback  sys- 
tem tends  to  a  national  communal  organization  or 
association  as  to  banking,  railroad  transportation, 
and  similar  branches  of  business." 

FREE  LAND. 

"  Air,  earth,  and  water  should  be  free  to  all. 
A  man  may  own  improvements,  but  not  the  land. 
We  should  make  the  taxes  on  large  accumulations 
of  landed  property  so  high  that  the  owners  can- 
not pay  them,  and  so  cannot  keep  the  land.  Land 
in  its  natural,  original,  and  unimproved  condition 
is  not  rightly  to  be  regarded  as  property.  Its  use 
should  be  subject  to  control  by  the  government." 

ORIGIN  AlID  ORGANIZATION. 

"  The  national  party  includes  the  greenback 
movement,  which  originated  in  the  dissatisfaction 
of  the  people  with  the  contraction  of  the  currency 
after  the  war,  and  the  other  gold-basis  legislation 
of  that  period;  the  labor  movement  is  another 
branch  of  the  party.  The  growth  of  our  cause 
has  also  been  largely  stimulated  and  assisted  by 
the  influence  of  the  internationals  and  of  the  Ger- 

5 


66  THE  NATIONALS, 

man  socialists.  Our  present  programme  is  not 
final  or  complete.  The  first  object  is  to  change 
the  nature  of  the  cun-ency  and  abolish  the  banks. 
Then  comes  the  seizure  by  labor  of  its  rightful 
empire,  and  government  ownership  of  railroads 
and  other  means  of  transportation  and  commerce; 
it  is  not  yet  certain  which  of  these  will  come  first. 
The  granger  movement  has  done  much  to  prepare 
material  for  the  national  party,  and  trades-unions 
and  other  secret  organizations  have  had  a  large 
share  in  developing  it ;  they  are  now  among  the 
most  efficient  agencies  for  the  propagation  of  our 
principles  and  the  extension  of  our  power.  It  is 
believed  that  fifteen  hundred  thousand  voters  be- 
long to  secret  labor  organizations  in  this  country, 
but  it  is  impossible  to  be  certain  of  the  numbers. 
In  every  place  in  which  the  nationals  have  been 
successful  in  elections,  their  strength  has  come 
from  these  secret  labor  organizations." 

TERMS  OF  OFFICE. 

"Nobody  should  hold  office  longer  than  one 
year,  except  the  president  and  members  of  Con- 
gress. They  might  be  elected  for  two  years,  and 
they  should  all  go  out  together,  so  as  to  have  all 
new  men  after  each  election." 

C0NTINT70US  ELECTIONS. 

"  I  would  have  a  continuous  election.  The  polls 
should  be  kept  open  all  the  time,  so  that  when- 
ever a  citizen  desires  he  can  go  and  change  his 


THEIR   ORIGIN  AND  THEIR  AIMS.         67 

vote  and  give  it  to  a  new  man.  Then  whenever 
a  majority  of  all  the  voters  of  a  district  or  State 
has  pronounced  in  favor  of  a  new  representative, 
the  old  one  should  give  place.  If  the  people  are 
dissatisfied  with  a  representative  in  three  weeks 
after  he  is  chosen,  they  have  a  right  to  dismiss 
him  and  elect  another." 

KEDUCED  HOURS  OF  LABOR. 

"  Whenever  the  hours  of  labor  have  been  re- 
duced, or  the  pay  of  workingmen  increased,  there 
has  been  an  increase  of  intelligence  and  morality, 
and  a  diminution  of  intemperance  and  crime." 

BONDS. 

"  The  5-20  bonds,  of  which  seven  or  eight  hun- 
dred millions  are  still  out,  were  originally  to  be 
paid  in  greenbacks ;  the  law  requiring  their  pay- 
ment in  coin  should  be  repealed.  We  should  have 
legislation  making  all  bonds  payable  in  green- 
backs. All  bonds  that  are  to  be  paid  in  gold 
were  made  so  by  fraud." 

NEW  ISSUE  OP  CURRENCY. 

*'  An  issue  of  two  thousand  millions  of  the  new 
currency  (absolute  money)  would  probably  not 
depreciate  the  currency  more  than  thirty  per 
cent." 

GOVERNMENTAL  EDUCATION. 

"  We  favor  education  by  the  state ;  it  should 
be  industrial  and  compulsory,  allowing  for  differ- 


68  THE  NATIONALS, 

ences  in  character  and  circumstances.  The  prob- 
lems or  examples  in  school-books  should  be  of  an 
industrial  and  not  of  a  commercial  nature." 

LABOR  BUREAUS. 

"  The  government  should  establish  a  labor  bu- 
reau in  each  State,  and  one  for  the  nation,  to  col- 
lect industrial  statistics,  and,  in  time,  to  regulate 
the  agricultural  production  of  the  country,  —  to 
determine,  for  instance,  how  many  sweet  potatoes 
would  probably  be  needed  each  year,  so  that  the 
market  might  not  be  oversupplied." 

ASSOCIATIONS. 

"  The  people  will  form  associations  everywhere. 
When  we  have  an  international  government  or 
superintendency,  as  we  must  have  with  interna- 
tional money,  this  will  lead  to  the  gradual  disuse 
or  comparative  abolition  of  nationalities,  and  the 
association  of  the  people  of  the  whole  world  for 
the  government  of  the  whole  world." 

CATHOLIC  NATIONALS. 

"  We  think  the  national  movement,  so  far  as  it 
tends  to  association,  is  opposed  to  the  influence  of 
the  clergy.  We  have  a  strong  following  among 
the  Catholics,  and  thousands  of  them  are  in  the 
secret  labor  societies." 

ABSOLUTE  MONEY. 

"  United  States  bonds  were  at  first  to  be  paid  in 
legal-tender  notes ;  a  clique  of  the  moneyed  men 


THEIR  ORIGIN  AND  THEIR  AIMS.  69 

got  together  and  changed  the  language  so  as  to  re- 
quire coin,  and  then  demonetized  silver.  After 
that  the  bankers  got  control  of  Congress,  and 
enacted  that  the  legal-tender  notes  should  not  be 
received  for  duties.  If  the  government  had  re- 
ceived the  paper  money  for  all  dues  it  would  al- 
ways have  been  equal  to  gold.  It  is  said  that 
absolute  money  would  not  be  received  in  Europe ; 
we  are  not  making  a  currency  for  Europe,  but  for 
our  own  countiy.  Gold  and  silver  for  money  are 
relics  of  heathenism.  Paper  money  would  natu- 
rally expel  coin  from  circulation.  W^e  should  re- 
peal all  laws  requiring  bonds  to  be  paid  in  gold. 
The  bonds  were  all  bought  at  greenback  values. 
One  thousand  dollars  in  gold  bought  two  thou- 
sand five  hundred  dollars  in  greenbacks,  and  that 
bought  two  thousand  five  hundred  dollars  in  United 
States  bonds." 

TRAMPS. 

"  The  governnient  should  employ  many  of  the 
tramps,  and  should  engage  in  the  construction  of 
extensive  public  works  for  the  relief  of  the  unem- 
ployed.    All  wages  should  be  paid  by  the  hour." 

GOVERNMENTAL  BANKING  AND  EMPLOYMENT. 

"  The  government  should  establish  post-office 
savings  banks,  and  should  pay  interest  at  a  rate 
not  above  that  of  the  annual  increase  of  the  wealth 
of  the  country,  now  about  three  and  a  half  per 
cent,  per  annum.  The  government  ought  to  be 
the  employer  of  the  people  if  the  government  is 


70  THE  NATIONALS, 

honestly  and  judiciously  administered  ;  and  it  is 
more  likely  to  be  so  administered  under  this  sys- 
tem than  any  other.  Of  course,  if  the  government 
takes  possession  of  the  railroads  it  would  naturally 
manufacture  its  own  engines,  cars,  rails,  and  equip- 
ments generally,  and  the  nation  would  become  a 
vast  cooperative  association." 

THE  PEOPLE  ALL-WISE. 

"  The  selfishness  of  the  people  will  teach  them 
to  be  just  and  wise.  They  are  too  intelligent  to 
commit  any  excesses.  They  will  lay  politicians 
on  the  shelf,  and  take  new  men.  No  capitalist  or 
banker  should  be  nominated  for  any  office  what- 
ever by  the  nationals." 

"No  doubt  there  will  be  excesses  of  various 
kinds,  and  measures  of  retaliation,  when  the  work- 
ingmen  obtain  control  of  the  government.  That 
will  be  only  human  nature.  There  is  a  consider- 
able proportion  of  low  and  brutal  material  in  the 
national  party,  but  we  are  not  responsible  for  that. 
The  same  men  belonged  to  the  other  two  parties 
before  they  joined  us,  and  they  are  no  worse  now 
than  when  they  voted  with  our  opponents." 

SOCIETY   TO   BE   CHANGED. 

"  None  of  us  can  speak  for  the  party.  We  can 
only  tell  you  what  we  think  would  be  best,,  what 
we  believe  in,  and  what  we  would  do  if  we  could. 
If  we  succeed,  the  general  structure  of  society 
will  be  modified  in  important  respects,  and  relig- 


THEJR  ORIGIN  AND  TUEIR  AIMS.         71 

ion  and  morality  will  no  doubt  be  affected  by 
changes  so  vital,  but  in  what  way,  or  to  what  ex- 
tent, nobody  can  now  foresee." 

MORALITY  AND   RELIGION. 

"  It  is  not  likely  that  the  organization  of  society 
will  be  affected  in  any  serious  way  by  the  changes 
we  propose  to  make.  Morality  and  religion  imder 
the  new  order  of  things  will  be  about  what  they 
are  now." 

PROTECTION. 

"We  favor  protection  and  oppose  free  trade. 
We  would  admit  raw  materials  (such  as  are  not 
produced  in  this  country)  free  of  duty,  but  would 
tax  imported  manufactured  goods." 

THE   SENATE   USELESS. 

"  The  workingmen  should  direct  their  efforts  to 
securing  an  adequate  representation,  by  members 
of  their  own  class,  in  the  national  house  of  repre- 
sentatives. The  senate  is  of  little  consequence, 
and  might  well  be  abolished." 

It  remains  for  me  to  add  a  few  facts  not  in- 
cluded in  the  conversations  thus  reported.  It  was 
made  plain  to  each  of  these  workingmen  that  it 
was  not  confidential  information  in  regard  to  the 
plans  of  the  national  party  which  I  sought,  but 
his  own  estimate  of  the  causes  of  the  movement 
and  of  the  grievances  of  the  people,  and  his  own 
opinion  and  hopes  in  regard  to  desirable  changes ; 


72  THE  NATIONALS, 

and  that  I  sought  such  information  with  the  pur- 
pose to  make  it  public,  and  thus  report  as  accu- 
rately as  possible  the  thought,  sentiment,  and  aims 
of  the  masses,  the  working  people. 

More  than  two  thirds  of  the  whole  number  of 
these  workingmen  favor  protection  in  some  form 
for  American  industry  ;  but  some  half  dozen  be- 
lieve in  free  trade. 

None  of  these  men  are  Catholics.  All  of  them 
hold  what  are  called  advanced  or  liberal  views  of 
religious  or  theological  subjects,  and  a  few  are 
atheists.  Eighteen  of  the  number  believe  that 
the  spirit  world  has  inspired  the  new  political  dis- 
content, and  that  the  national  party  is  constantly 
aided  and  reinforced  from  "  the  superior  spheres." 
I  have  myself  observed  that  many  mediums  and 
trance-speakers  are  among  the  most  popular  and 
influential  orators  now  employed  in  propagating 
the  sentiments  of  the  new  party. 

In  connection  with  this  movement  women  are 
engaging  in  politics  more  directly  and  effectively 
than  ever  before.  Many  of  them  are  traveling 
through  the  countiy,  speaking  on  political  and  so- 
cial subjects,  and  their  oratory  often  influences 
voters  as  much  as  that  of  the  men  on  the  same 
platform.  The  women  have  political  clubs  which 
meet  regularly  for  discussing  the  questions  of  the 
time. 

The  thirty-four  workingmen  with  whom  I  thus 
conversed  are,  I  think,  quite  as  intelligent  as  the 
better  class  of  voters  in  either  of  the  other  two 


THEIR  ORIGIN  AND   THEIR  AIMS.  73 

parties.  They  are  well-educated  men,  according 
to  the  popular  American  standard  and  idea  of 
education  :  that  is,  they  are  all  ready  talkers ; 
most  of  them  could  make  nearly  as  good  speeches 
as  an  average  congressman ;  and  they  have  a  great 
deal  of  such  information  as  is  to  be  obtained  from 
scraps  and  items  in  newspapers.  They  are  "  up 
with  the  times,"  to  use  a  phrase  now  very  common 
among  the  people  of  this  country,  and  know  what 
is  said  pro  and  con  regarding  the  questions  of  the 
day.  There  is  probably  a  larger  proportion  of  the 
members  of  the  national  party  than  of  either  of 
the  other  political  parties  who  are  able  to  "  make 
a  good  speech,"  and  who  are  now  engaged  in  writ- 
ing for  the  newspapers  of  the  country.  They 
have  incessant  drill  and  practice  in  talking,  and 
the  fondness  of  the  masses  for  oratory  gives  these 
propagandists  a  great  opportunity.  They  are  all 
aggressive  and  confident,  and  most  of  them  mani- 
fest a  degree  of  exultation  in  prospect  of  speedy 
success.  As  I  have  been  familiar  with  their  views 
from  the  first  in  the  Northwestern  States,  and  for 
many  years  past  in  the  three  States  mentioned 
before,  I  have  heard  little  that  is  new  in  these  re- 
cent conversations.  Perhaps  the  chief  change  is 
that  our  friends  of  the  new  party  now  talk  a  great 
deal  about  history,  and  constantly  appeal  to  its 
lessons,  whereas  they  formerly  derided  scornfully 
the  notion  of  assistance  for  us  from  the  experience 
of  other  nations.  A  great  deal  of  the  history 
brought  forward  I  confess  I  never  heard  of  before. 


74  THE  NATIONALS, 

It  is  true  that  these  thirty-four  men  are  much  su- 
pei'ior  to  the  majority  of  the  national  party,  but 
they,  and  such  as  they,  are  the  true  representa- 
tives of  the  masses  who  have  neither  opinions  nor 
power  of  expression,  and  who  are  as  chiy  in  the 
hands  of  the  potter  under  the  influence  of  these 
workers  and  organizers.  Precisely  the  same  thing 
is  true  of  the  other  parties.  What  these  active, 
capable  workingraen  think  and  say  is  what  their 
silent  brethren  are  acting  upon  and  supporting 
with  their  votes. 

All  these  men  are  very  much  in  earnest,  but  I 
could  discover  no  sign  of  that  sense  of  responsi- 
bility which  all  men  of  insight  feel  in  undertaking 
movements  which  must  seriously  affect  the  wel- 
fare of  many  millions  of  human  beings.  It  seemed 
to  me  that  they  had  no  adequate  conception  of 
the  real  nature  or  magnitude  of  the  changes  in  our 
national  life  and  society  which  they  were  trying 
to  accomplish.  Most  of  them  seemed  somewhat 
reckless  in  regai'd  to  possible  consequences  of 
these  changes.  None  of  them,  1  think,  are  ac- 
quainted with  the  later  conceptions  of  history,  and 
its  value  as  a  record  of  the  experience  of  society, 
of  its  efforts,  illusions,  gains,  and  failures  during 
the  ages  which  have  been  necessary  to  develop 
and  establish  such  civilization  and  political  and 
social  organization  as  we  have  attained. 

There  were  differences  of  opinion  among  these 
workingmen  upon  some  points,  but  it  is  to  be  ob- 
served that  they  agree  in  their  belief  in  *'  absolute 


THEIR   ORIGIN  AND   THEIR  AIMS.  75 

money,"  —  money  that  is  not  a  promise  to  pay, 
nor  composed  of  any  material  having  intrinsic 
vahie ;  in  desiring  the  government  to  become  the 
employer  of  the  people  by  constructing  public 
works  of  enormous  extent,  and  in  thinking  that  it 
should  own  and  operate  railroads,  canals,  and 
telegraphs  for  the  benefit  of  the  people ;  in  favor- 
ing government  ownership  of  land,  legal  prohibi- 
tion of  large  accumulations  of  wealth  by  individu- 
als, and  the  substitution,  to  a  great  extent,  of  the 
will  of  tlie  people,  as  expressed  each  year  (or 
each  day),  for  fixed  constitutional  provisions  and 
limitations.  They  agree  in  thinking  lightly  of 
culture,  and  in  the  purpose  to  legislate  and  tax 
"  the  money  power"  out  of  existence.  But  none 
of  them  spoke  of  the  need  of  industry,  economy, 
or  wise  self-direction  on  the  part  of  their  own 
class,  though  they  were  confident  of  their  ability 
to  reorganize  and  direct  society.  If  their  under- 
taking could  succeed,  we  should  have  wealth  with- 
out labor,  and  a  system  of  morals  without  self- 
restraint  ;  and  instead  of  the  orderly  empire  of 
law  we  should  have  "  mob-voiced  lawlessness," 
anarchy  uttered  or  ordained  by  the  people.  I 
have  seen  no  reason  for  thinking  we  are  near  the 
end  of  this  conflict. 

I  observed  another  trait  in  intellectual  charac- 
ter. It  appeared  to  me  that  very  few  of  these 
men  had  received  any  education  in  regard  to  the 
laws,  methods,  and  difficulties  of  clear  and  trust- 
worthy thinking.     They  seemed   unconscious   of 


76  THE  NATIONALS. 

the  danger  from  illusions,  and  of  the  necessity  for 
testing  and  verifying  opinions  and  theories  by 
patient  analysis  and  comparison.  Many  of  them 
indeed  professed  the  belief  that  the  direct  mental 
vision  or  intuition  of  uneducated  men  is  more 
valuable,  in  determining  matters  connected  with 
legislation  and  the  organization  and  progress  of 
society,  than  the  trained  and  disciplined  faculties 
of  students  or  men  of  culture.  They  esteem  very 
lightly  the  judgment  or  authority  of  scholars,  and 
believe  that  American  workingmen  are  entirely 
competent  to  understand  and  decide  rightly  the 
problems  which  have  perplexed  thoughtful  states- 
men and  patriots  for  ages.  Their  faculties  have 
not  been  trained  to  analysis  or  comparison,  or  to 
the  study,  by  trustworthy  methods,  of  the  rela- 
tions between  causes  and  effects.  They  still  use 
very  largely  the  methods  of  thought  of  uncivilized 
or  prehistoric  men.  At  every  step  they  are  the 
unconscious  prey  of  illusion,  and  they  are  to  a 
great  extent  incapable  of  receiving  guidance  or 
assistance  from  anybody  wiser  than  themselves. 
Their  intellectual  character  is  a  matter  of  pro- 
found interest  to  me,  because  I  believe  it  to  be 
very  nearly  that  of  a  vast  majority  of  the  voters 
of  our  country  ;  and  almost  precisely  that  which 
our  existing  methods  of  education  are  fitted  to 
produce. 


THREE  TYPICAL  WORKINGMEN. 

There  are  many  types  or  varieties  of  character 
among  the  workingmen  of  this  country.  As  ac- 
quaintance with  many  individuals  must  precede 
any  useful  attempt  at  classification,  I  present  these 
sketches  of  workingmen  I  have  known  without 
trying  to  determine  in  what  degree  they  are  typi- 
cal or  representative  persons.  Of  course  one  can 
report  only  what  he  has  seen.  Workingmen  are 
not  equally  communicative  with  everybody,  and 
there  are  few  observers  who,  to  use  a  phrase  com- 
mon among  the  workingmen,  can  "  put  things  to- 
gether ; "  few  who  distinguish  what  is  significant, 
or  penetrate  to  the  relations  between  the  most  fa- 
miliar facts,  or  even  remember  and  think  about 
what  they  have  seen.  My  acquaintance  with 
American  workingmen  in  different  parts  of  the 
country  has  impressed  me  with  the  essential  truth 
of  the  saying  that  the  whole  world  is  everywhere, 
and  that  although  many  things  seem  strange  or 
unusual  when  first  seen,  continued  observation  re- 
veals the  existence  of  similar  facts  and  instances 
almost  everywhere.  Of  course  the  life  of  working- 
men  and  their  families  varies  in  many  of  its  feat- 
ures in  different  regions.  There  are  observable 
diversities  of  type,  in  conditions  and  in  character, 


78  THREE   TYPICAL    WORKINGMEN. 

as  we  pass  from  the  mountain  mining  regions  to 
the  farms  of  the  Western  prairies  or  of  New  Eng- 
land. Manufacturing  communities  have  their  pe- 
culiarities. Changes  in  employment  modify  the 
character  of  the  population.  The  establishment 
of  a  great  factory  employing  a  thousand  men  or 
women  would  produce  important  social  and  moral 
modifications  in  any  community.  Wide-spread 
changes  in  opinion  also  affect  the  prevalent  type  of 
character,  and  in  time  even  the  structure  of  society. 
The  increased  hostility  to  the  churches  which  has 
been  developed  in  some  classes  of  our  population 
within  the  last  twenty  years  has  already  produced 
in  many  places  a  greater  feebleness  of  community. 
There  is  not  always  now,  on  the  part  of  the  peo- 
ple living  near  each  other,  so  general  or  vital  co- 
operation for  the  promotion  of  the  interests  of  the 
neighborhood,  as  formerly  existed ;  and  the  more 
definite  and  active  opposition  to  Christianity  in 
our  time  has  already  produced  changes  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  charity,  and,  what  is  more  impor- 
tant, in  the  moral  guardianship  of  the  younger  and 
more  dependent  members  of  many  communities. 
There  is  often  less  interest  on  the  part  of  society 
in  the  establishment  of  young  men  in  business  or 
profitable  industry.  Such  shifting  of  currents  and 
tendencies  in  the  life  and  thought  of  the  age  often 
goes  on  for  some  time  without  being  recognized ; 
but  no  student  of  the  subject  believes  that  great 
changes  can  take  place  in  the  circumstances,  occu- 
pations, opinions,  habits,  and  educational  condi- 


THREE   TYPICAL    WORKINGMEN.  79 

tions  of  any  population  without  some  resulting 
modification  in  personal  character  and  the  struct- 
ure of  society. 

Strong  drii]k  is  still  the  greatest  evil  in  the  life 
of  multitudes  of  American  workingmen,  though 
the  number  of  those  who  do  not  use  ardent  spirits 
at  all  has  greatly  increased  during  the  last  twen- 
ty-five years,  and  is  still  increasing.  Yet  there 
are  workingmen  everywhere  who  are  fighting  this 
appetite,  and  trying  to  throw  off  the  bondage  of 
the  habit  of  indulgence.  One  such  I  have  known 
for  many  years.  He^was  born  in  New  England, 
and  was  a  member  of  the  first  company  of  soldiers 
wlio  left  Boston  for  the  seat  of  war  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  rebellion.  He  was  shot  through  the 
hand  at  Antietam,  and  receives  a  pension  of  five 
dollars  per  month  from  the  government.  Four  or 
five  of  his  children  are  in  the  public  schools,  and 
there  are  two  or  three  smaller  ones  at  home.  He 
has  been  for  several  years  a  shoemaker,  working 
in  the  large  shops  or  "  factories  "  of  a  country 
town.  There  seems  to  be  nothing  loose  or  defect- 
ive in  his  original  equipment ;  he  has  in  almost 
every  respect  a  fine  nature ;  but  he  had  a  hard 
struggle  for  several  years  with  the  habit  of  social 
drinking.  It  beset  him  most  severely  in  times  of 
depression,  when  he  was  out  of  work,  or  after 
sickness  in  his  family.  His  pastor  once  told  me 
of  having  chanced  to  see  him  coming  out  of  a  sa- 
loon one  day  while  the  shops  were  closed.     The 


80  THREE   TYPICAL    WORKINGMEN. 

clergyman  met  him  with  an  impetuous  expression 
of  grief  and  disappointment  that  he  should  not 
have  cared  more  for  the  trials  and  perplexities  of 
his  minister's  lot,  and  should  be  willing  to  add 
thus  to  his  burdens,  mentioning  several  working- 
men  about  whom  he  had  long  been  anxious,  and 
whom  he  had  tried  to  encourage  and  fortify  against 
the  appetite  for  liquor.  "  If  you  workingmen  go 
on  in  this  way,"  he  concluded,  "  how  can  I  have 
strength  or  hope  to  try  to  do  anything  ?  It  is 
enough  to  break  a  man's  heart  to  see  that  nobody 
cares  about  what  he  is  trying  so  hard  to  accom- 
plish." The  man's  face  grew  white  ;  he  burst 
into  tears,  and  said,  "  I  did  not  know  you  ciired  so 
much  about  it  as  that.  I  will  never  go  into  such 
a  place  again."  And  the  minister  thmks  he  has 
kept  his  word. 

The  life  of  such  a  man  has  its  trials  and  hard- 
ships. During  many  years  past  he  has  scarcely 
ever  received  more  than  enough  for  the  subsist- 
ence of  his  family  in  time  of  health.  He  is  now 
able,  while  working  by  the  piece,  to  earn  a  dollar 
and  a  half  per  day.  This,  with  the  pension  added, 
amounts  at  the  utmost  to  about  five  hundred  and 
thirty  dollars  per  year.  Out  of  this  he  must  pay 
rent  for  his  house,  and  provide  all  that  his  family 
can  have  to  live  upon.  The  closest  economy  con- 
sistent with  health  does  not  avail  to  save  any  con- 
siderable part  of  such  an  income.  But  sickness 
comes  to  all  homes,  and  most  frequently  to  those 
of  the  poor.     When  it  visits  a  household  like  this. 


THREE  TYPICAL    WORKINGMEN.  81 

even  if  the  workman  is  not  kept  from  the  shop  by 
the  iUuess  of  child  or  wife,  tliere  is  unavoidably 
some  increase  of  expenditure.  There  can  be  but 
very  little  increase  without  incurring  debts,  and  in 
such  circumstances  how  can  debts  ever  be  paid  ? 

Then  there  are  sometimes  losses  from  other 
causes  than  sickness  in  the  family.  Two  or  three 
years  ago  this  man  worked  for  manufacturers 
who  did  not  (perhaps  could  not)  pay  their  hands 
promptly.  My  friend's  children  had  been  ill,  and 
he  was  straining  every  nerve  to  make  extra  wages, 
frequently  working  fifteen  hours  out  of  the  twen- 
ty-four. He  had  gone  on  thus  for  some  months, 
when  his  employers  suddenly  closed  their  shop 
and  left  the  town.  Other  creditoi's  seized  the 
stock  on  hand,  and  the  workmen  were  left  unpaid. 
The  amount  due  my  neighbor  wsis  about  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  dollars.  I  went  to  see  him.  He 
was  depressed,  of  course,  and  indignant,  but  bore 
the  stroke  bravely.  It  was  a  serious  matter  for 
him.  His  wife  was  troubled  and  anxious  lest  her 
husband  might,  under  such  discouragement,  yield 
to  the  temptation  he  had  long  withstood,  and  so 
lose  the  mastery  of  himself  he  had  so  hardly  won. 
He  was  half  sick  for  a  day  or  two,  but  wise  neigh- 
bors invited  hiui  and  his  family  out  for  two  or 
three  visits.  He  soon  emerged  from  his  depres- 
sion, and  as  soon  as  possible  obtained  woi-k  in  an- 
other shop.  Since  then  he  has  not  been  able  to 
free  himself  from  debt,  but  he  told  me  recently 


82  THREE  TYPICAL    WORKINGMEN. 

that  with  a  year  of  steady  work  and  close  econ- 
omy he  can  pay  all  that  he  owes. 

I  asked  him  lately  if  he  was  attending  the  polit- 
ical meetings  now  being  held  nightly  in  the  town 
where  he  lives.  "  No,"  said  he ;  "I  do  not  go  at 
all  this  year.  I  joined  the  greenback  people  last 
year,  listened  to  their  speeches,  and  voted  their 
ticket.  But  their  talk  has  disgusted  me.  I  told 
my  wife  they  were  depending  on  getting  something 
out  of  nothing.  We  are  all  to  be  prosperous  with 
very  little  labor.  Now,  I  don't  see  how  that  can 
be.  It  may  be  that  poor  people  are  oppressed, 
and  I  think  myself  some  things  are  wrong,  and 
they  are  hard  to  bear  ;  but  as  I  look  at  it,  it  takes 
a  deal  of  hard  work  to  keep  this  world  going  on, 
and  it  seems  to  me  these  labor  reformers  would 
only  make  things  worse.  One  thing  I  have  no- 
ticed :  I  have  been  out  of  work  sometimes  for  a 
few  weeks,  and  even  when  we  had  plenty  to  live 
on  the  idleness  did  me  no  good."  This  man  is 
growing  in  self-control  and  strength  of  character. 
He  has  a  good  wife,  and  his  children  are  doing 
well  in  the  public  schools. 

I  have  observed  that  workingmen  who  habit- 
ually drink  even  the  lighter  beverages,  such  as 
beer  and  ale,  are  usually  more  irritable  at  home, 
and  are  more  frequently  involved  in  domestic  dis- 
turbance and  unhappiness,  than  those  who  use  no 
liquor.  In  the  towns  and  cities  the  children  of 
those  who  do  not  drink  are  commonly  more  intel- 
ligent, quiet,  and  well  behaved  than  the  children 


THREE  TYPICAL    WORKINGMEN.  83 

of  parents  who  drink  even  moderately.  This  re- 
sults largely,  I  suppose,  from  the  fact  that  men 
who  do  not  drink  are  at  home  at  evening  much 
more,  and  their  family  life  becomes  more  social, 
intellectual,  and  active. 

Another  hardship  and  temptation  for  multi- 
tudes of  workingmen  arises  from  the  fact  that 
they  have  been  systematically  taught  by  all  their 
guides  that  in  this  country  men  should  "  aspire  " 
to  the  possession  of  nearly  eveiything  that  appears 
in  any  way  desirable.  The  old  moral  teaching, 
which  emphasized  intelligibly  and  without  mysti- 
cism the  strength  which  comes  from  the  repression 
of  desires,  has  been  to  a  great  extent  disused.  It 
is  harder  and  more  painful  than  formerly  for 
workingmen  and  their  families  to  "do  without 
things."  In  very  few  communities  has  there  been 
any  example  of  moderation  on  the  part  of  the 
more  fortunate  classes,  and  these  are  not  without 
some  degree  of  responsibility  for  the  alienation 
and  discontent  recently  apparent  among  working- 
men.  The  unwillingness  to  begin  where  they  are, 
and  accept  the  facts  of  their  situation,  with  the 
wearing,  fruitless  endeavor  to  live  on  a  scale  re- 
quiring an  expenditure  greater  than  their  income, 
is  perhaps  the  chief  evil  and  error  in  the  life  of 
American  workingmen  as  a  class.  (Of  course 
this  does  not  now  apply  to  those  who  are  entirely 
without  employment.)  Would  that  this  evil  were 
confined  to  the  class  of  workingmen ! 


84  THREE   TYPICAL    WORKINGMEN. 

Tlie  next  story  is  of  a  man  who  is  now  between 
forty -five  and  fifty  years  of  age,  who  was  born  in 
New  Enghmd.  He  was  from  boyhood  an  earnest 
abolitionist ;  was  a  common  soldier  and  afterward 
a  commissioned  officer  in  the  Union  army;  and 
has  been  a  farmer  and  house-carpenter  since  the 
close  of  the  war.  In  speaking  of  him  I  feel  that 
I  ought  to  begin  with  the  fullest  recognition  of  the 
many  excellent  qualities  in  his  character.  He  is 
a  man  of  most  amiable  and  kindly  disposition  ;  of 
great  tenderness  and  benevolence  to  the  poor,  the 
sick,  and  all  who  are  in  distress  ;  a  faithful  and 
sympathetic  nurse  when  disease  invades  the  homes 
of  his  neighbors  ;  and  ready  to  divide  his  last  crust 
with  those  whom  others  neglect  or  abuse.  He  is 
what  people  call  a  well-informed  man ;  his  knowl- 
edge of  what  may  be  learned  from  the  encyclo- 
paedias and  from  good  books  being  above  the  av- 
erage attainments  even  of  "  cultivated  people." 
Yet  he  is  poorly  fitted  for  life  in  a  world  where 
effects  depend  upon  causes,  and  most  good  things 
have  their  price  in  toil.  My  friend  has  always 
been  greatly  interested  in  the  elevation  of  man- 
kind, the  improvement  of  society,  and  the  progress 
of  humanity,  —  to  use  three  phrases  which  are 
very  dear  to  him.  But  he  has  not  been,  and  is 
not  now,  able  so  to  apply  and  direct  his  own  pow- 
ers as  to  gain  a  subsistence  for  himself  and  his 
family.  He  once  had  a  farm,  which,  if  it  had  been 
managed  wisely  and  cultivated  with  energy,  would 
have  been  a  sufficient  means  and  source  of  support, 


THREE   TYPICAL    WORKINGMEN.  85 

a  most  comfortable  and  desirable  home.  But  he 
would  never  begin  his  work  at  the  right  time,  or 
follow  it  persistently  after  his  tardy  beginning. 

In  the  late  spring,  when  his  neighbors  were  al- 
ready plowing  their  com,  they  would  sometimes 
ask  each  other,  "  How's  the  captain's  corn  ? " 
And  the  usual  reply  would  be,  "The  captain 
has  n't  planted  yet.  Fact  is,  he  has  n't  got  his 
plans  made  out  for  this  season's  crop."  This  re- 
ply hints  at  one  of  my  friend's  greatest  difficulties. 
His  plans  are  always  so  large  and  complex,  and 
all  his  movements  so  deliberate,  that  it  is  almost 
impossible  for  him  to  begin  even  the  simplest  and 
most  ordinary  operations  of  the  farm. 

He  is  an  inveterate  reader,  and  has  read  many 
good  books  during  the  long  summer  days  when 
his  labor  was  sadly  needed  on  his  farm.  He  has 
always  had  an  especial  fondness  for  the  specu- 
lative or  theoretical  side  of  the  physical  sciences, 
and  is  deeply  interested  in  all  labor-saving  inven- 
tions, and  especially  in  projects  which  promise 
great  results  from  apparently  trifling  causes.  He 
has  almost  boundless  faith  in  the  possibility  of 
such  inventions  or  discoveries.  I  think  he  would 
scarcely  be  staggered  by  the  announcement  that 
somebody  had  a  plan  to  warm  the  polar  regions 
of  the  globe  and  cool  the  tropics,  or  had  found  out 
how  to  evolve  power  enough  from  a  pail  of  water 
to  drive  a  railway  train  across  the  continent.  He 
has  a  vivid  imagination,  but  it  has  never  been  dis- 
ciplined, or  brought  into  relations  with  the  facts 


86  THREE  TYPICAL    WORKINGMEN. 

of  life.  I  think  the  greatest  happiness  of  his  life 
has  been  the  study  of  the  works  of  Tyndall,  Hux- 
ley, and  Darwin.  lie  is  very  familiar  with  these, 
and  has  eminent  delight  in  Mr.  Darwin's  specula- 
tions regarding  the  origin  and  development  of  ani- 
mal and  human  life.  He  has  good  conversational 
powers,  and  is  a  very  interesting  companion  on  a 
journey  or  in  the  social  circle. 

Yet  this  man,  with  all  these  endowments  and 
with  good  health  and  ample  strength  of  body  and 
limb,  has  not  been  successful  in  life.  He  early 
began  borrowing  money  for  current  expenses,  for 
the  means  of  subsistence,  mortgaging  his  farm  to 
secure  the  payment  of  these  sums,  which  grew 
larger  and  larger,  and  were  never  paid.  By  and  by 
the  whole  value  of  the  farm  was  swallowed  up,  and 
he  was  dispossessed.  He  has  many  children,  and 
the  family  would  often  have  suffered  sharplj'  if  it 
had  not  been  for  the  patient,  laborious  industry  of 
the  wife  and  mother,  who  is  not  at  all  poetical  or 
imaginative,  who  has  no  great  plans  or  theories, 
but  who  has  an  old-fashioned,  practical  faith  in 
hard  work.  For  many  years  the  family  has  in 
large  measure  subsisted  upon  the  scanty  proceeds 
of  her  work  with  her  sewing-machine.  If  she  had 
been  seconded  by  equal  industry  and  application 
on  the  part  of  her  husband,  they  might  now  have 
been  a  prosperous  family  in  a  home  of  theip  own. 
Instead  of  this  the  man  is  hopelessly,  fatally,  in 
debt.     His  credit  was  gone  long  ago. 

My  friend  has  recently  been  profoundly  inter- 


THREE  TYPICAL    WORKINGMEN.  87 

ested  in  the  science  of  government,  and  especially 
in  subjects  connected  with  the  financial  systems 
of  different  nations.  He  now  attributes  the  loss 
of  his  farm  to  fatal  mismanagement  on  the  part  of 
our  government,  and  an  evil  discrimination  in  our 
national  legislation  against  the  workingmen  and 
in  favor  of  capitalists.  His  theories  of  these  sub- 
jects need  not  be  recorded  here  at  length.  They 
are  essentially  the  same  as  those  held  by  most  of 
the  men  who  think  the  way  can  be  opened  into  a 
new  Garden  of  Eden  for  mankind  by  intrusting 
the  guidance  and  control  of  society  to  leaders  who 
have  not  been  spoiled  by  culture  or  knowledge. 
His  expectations  have,  however,  an  Oriental  rich- 
ness of  coloring,  a  breadth  and  sweep  surpassing 
all  that  I  have  heard  or  read  in  the  most  sanguine 
predictions  of  the  prophets  of  the  national  party. 
The  opinions  or  theories  of  this  class  relative  to 
financial  subjects,  and  other  matters  connected 
with  the  government  and  the  organization  of  so- 
ciety, however  wild  and  baseless  we  may  esteem 
them,  are  held  naturally  by  their  votaries.  Our 
fellow-citizens  who  still  display  the  characteristics 
of  prehistoric  thought  are,  in  an  important  sense, 
logical  and  consistent.  They  think  as  they  must 
think  till  they  have  a  different  education.  These 
theories  and  prepossessions  are  coherent  with  their 
usual,  intellectual  methods,  and  with  the  whole 
body  of  their  thought.  They  are  such  as  should 
have  been  expected,  under  existing  circumstances, 
from  a  class  with  their  equipment  and  education. 


88  THREE  TYPICAL    WORKINGMEN. 

I  think  the  failures  of  this  life  can  be  traced  far 
back,  if  not  entirely  to  their  sources.  My  friend 
has  always  been,  as  he  himself  declares,  a  dreamer 
and  idealist.  When  he  was  young  he  loved  to  in- 
dulge in  reverie, —  in  beautiful  and  happy  imagin- 
ings of  a  world  unblighted  by  evil  and  suffering. 
It  would  probably  have  required,  even  in  early 
manhood,  strenuous  self-restraint,  a  severe  and 
protracted  course  of  effort  and  discipline,  to  over- 
come this  inclination  to  luxurious,  indolent  think- 
ing. The  habit  has  so  long  been  firmly  fixed 
that  probably  no  endeavor  of  which  he  is  now 
capable  would  avail  to  free  him  from  this  bond- 
age, a  bondage  which  is  in  some  respects  not  un- 
like that  of  opium  or  strong  drink.  His  neighbors 
cannot  afford  to  employ  him,  because  he  so  often 
forgets  himself  or  his  work.  Even  in  such  occupa- 
tions as  require  the  constant  attention  and  recip- 
rocal activity  of  two  men,  such  as  handling  lum- 
ber or  brick,  he  becomes  oblivious,  in  the  briefest 
interval,  respecting  the  necessity  of  cooperation 
with  his  fellow-workman. 

Our  friend  has  never  used  intoxicating  liquors, 
having  been  faithful  to  his  habit  of  total  absti- 
nence even  while  an  officer  in  the  army.  An  old 
neighbor  and  faithful  friend  of  his,  who  is  in  no 
degree  blind  to  his  faults,  says  that  the  captain 
would  face  all  possible  obloquy  in  support  of  an 
unpopular  principle  or  cause,  and  that  he  would 
undoubtedly  meet  death  unflinchingly  at  the  hands 
of  an  angry  mob,  if  that  were  the  penalty  for  pro- 


THREE  TYPICAL    WORKINGMEN.  89 

tecting  a  helpless  woman  or  child  from  abuse,  or 
befriending  an  oppressed  negro  or  Chinaman  ;  and 
my  own  acquaintance  with  the  man  leads  me  to 
regard  this  estimate  as  only  just.  He  is  capable 
of  any  devotion  or  sacrifice  that  would  not  require 
faithful,  patient  industry,  and  a  recognition  of  the 
hard  facts  and  conditions  of  human  life  in  this 
world.  He  has  always  preferred  illusions  to  truth. 
At  a  meeting  of  a  greenback  club  a  few  weeks 
ago,  after  our  friend  had  made  a  speech  in  which 
representations  of  the  woes  of  the  unemployed 
millions  of  American  workingmen  were  mingled 
with  glowing  millennial  prophecies  of  the  good 
time  coming,  "  when  the  people  shall  have  buried 
the  capitalist  and  the  politician  in  one  wide,  deep 
grave,"  an  old  farmer  gave  his  neighbors  his  view 
of  the  state  of  the  country  :  "  The  man  who  works 
for  money  and  then  saves  it  will  have  it ;  but  the 
man  who  spends  good  working-days  talking  poli- 
tics will  never  have  much  of  anything.  It 's  well 
enough  for  neighbors  to  talk  over  these  things  on 
Saturday  evenings  down  at  the  store,  specially  if 
there  's  anybody  there  that  knows  anything  about 
such  matters ;  but  a  good  many  men  about  here 
would  rather  talk  all  day  on  the  streets  about  the 
hard  times  and  the  meanness  of  the  bond-holders 
than  to  do  an  honest  day's  work.  I  have  been 
farming  here,  in  the  edge  of  the  village,  for  fifteen 
years.  Before  that  I  farmed  in  Northern  New 
York.  Have  always  hired  one  or  two  hands. 
Men  do  not  generally  work  so  well  of  late  years 


90  THREE  TYPICAL   WORKINGMEN. 

as  before  the  war.  The  high  wages  just  after  the 
war  seemed  to  spoil  a  good  many  of  them.  Tliey 
acted  as  if  they  thought  they  were  working  en- 
tirely for  their  own  interest,  and  not  at  all  for 
mine.  One  of  my  hands  told  me  once  —  that  was 
in  1865  or  1866  —  that  while  he  could  make  three 
dollars  a  day  he  would  n't  stand  much  orderin' 
around  from  Anybody.  I  discharged  him  at  once, 
for  I  thought  he  might  soon  conclude  that  he 
owned  the  farm,  instead  of  me.  I  always  hired 
men  from  New  York  (where  I  used  to  live),  for 
six  months  or  a  year  at  a  time,  till  three  years 
ago  my  wife  and  I  thought  that  as  so  many  men 
here  were  out  of  employment,  and  there  was  real 
distress  on  account  of  it,  I  ought  to  give  ray 
neiglibors  a  chance  to  do  whatever  woik  I  had  for 
hired  men.  But  it  has  been  unprofitable  for  me, 
and  has  not  seemed  to  do  them  much  good.  I 
have  not  found  many  men  who  were  ready  to  go 
to  work  at  any  particular  time.  Some  who  had 
complained  bitterly  of  the  hard  times,  and  of  not 
being  employed,  engaged  to  work  for  me,  but 
they  never  came.  Others  came  so  late  in  the 
morning  and  worked  so  leisurely  that  it  made  me 
tired  to  see  their  movements.  One  man  made 
greenback  speeches  to  me  nearly  all  one  day  ; 
they  were  pretty  good  speeches,  too,  —  of  the 
kind.  At  night  I  paid  him,  and  told  him  I  did 
not  feel  comfortable  in  having  a  man  at  work  in 
my  fields  who  could  speak  so  well  as  he.  He  was 
very  poor  and  needed  every  cent  he  could  make, 


THREE  TYPICAL    WORKINGMEN.  91 

but  I  would  have  paid  him  pretty  good  wages  to 
stay  away  rather  than  have  him  on  my  place.  I 
have  tried  to  have  some  men  work  for  me  who  get 
help  from  the  town  in  winter,  but  I  never  could 
get  much  out  of  them." 

It  is  a  little  more  than  ten  years  since  a  sturdy 
young  friend  of  mine,  whom  the  neighbors  called 
Jim,  bought  sixty  acres  of  land  about  two  miles 
from  a  thriving  country  town  in  one  of  the  larg- 
est States.  It  was  high  ground,  lying  on  the  first 
"  bench "  or  elevation  above  a  river  valley  or 
"  bottom,"  to  use  terms  common  in  that  region. 
It  had  been  rendered  nearly  worthless  for  agricult- 
ure by  the  use  of  the  upper  stratum  of  clay  over 
most  of  its  surface  in  the  manufacture  of  brick. 
Then  it  had  been  for  a  long  time  part  of  an  un- 
settled estate  belonging  to  non-resident  heirs,  and, 
as  nobody  took  care  of  it,  excavations  were  made 
upon  it  for  earth  to  fill  up  low-lying  lots,  and  for 
road-making,  till  it  was  as  rough  and  uninviting  a 
place  as  one  would  see  in  a  day's  ride,  —  made  up 
mostly  of  irregular  hillocks  of  clay,  small  ponds, 
and  tracts  of  mire.  At  last  it  was  to  be  sold,  and 
this  young  fellow,  who  had  just  attained  his  ma- 
jority, was  the  purchaser.  He  was  an  orphan,  free 
after  he  was  sixteen  years  of  age  to  make  his  own 
living,  and  without  a  dollar  in  the  world,  or  any 
possession  but  sound  health  and  a  strong  will.  He 
had  at  that  time  gone  into  the  army,  and  after  the 
war  was  over  he  had  worked  on  the  farms  and  in 


92  THREE  TYPICAL    WORKINGMEN. 

the  stone  quames  in  the  vicinity,  and  in  these  five 
years  had  saved  enough  to  make  a  good  first  pay- 
ment on  this  piece  of  land.  He  had  now  to  im- 
prove his  property  and  finish  paying  for  it.  He 
had  a  surveyor  look  over  the  ground  and  advise 
about  drains.  Then  he  bought  a  little  scrub  mule 
and  an  old  cart,  as  he  was  determined  not  to  go 
in  debt  for  anything  besides  the  land.  He  began 
digging  down  banks,  opening  ditches,  and  filling 
up  ponds.  He  obtained  permission  to  remove  the 
earth  thrown  out  in  enlarging  and  extending  a 
mill-race  not  far  away,  and  engaged  in  carting  this 
on  to  his  land.  He  planted  every  foot  of  his 
ground  that  would  produce  anything,  and  labored 
early  and  late  to  bring  more  of  it  into  a  state  of 
fitness  for  cultivation.  When  obliged  to  have 
money,  he  worked  for  a  few  days  in  the  stone 
quarries.  He  put  up  a  little  cabin  on  his  own 
ground,  and  brought  an  old  negro  woman  from 
the  town  to  keep  house  for  him. 

I  sometimes  saw  him  in  those  days,  going  out 
to  the  cabin  on  Sunday  afternoons  for  a  little  talk 
with  him.  The  old  woman  went  to  church  regu- 
larly on  Sunday  morning,  and  Jim  went  along, 
because,  as  he  said,  it  kept  fellows  away  whoni  he 
did  not  wish  to  associate  with.  I  thought  this  a 
good  reason,  and  did  not  press  him  for  others.  He 
did  not  use  tobacco  nor  any  kind  of  strong  drink. 
"  The  fact  is,"  he  said,  "  vices  are  luxuries,  and  I 
can't  afford  to  have  any."  I  found  that  his  rep- 
utation among  the  farmers  and  business  men  was 


THREE   TYPICAL   WORKINGMEN.  93 

excellent  for  industry  and  faithfulness.  One  old 
man  told  me  that  Jim  lost  less  time  in  getting 
at  his  work  than  any  other  hand  he  had  ever  em- 
ployed. "  He  '11  be  in  the  middle  of  a  job,  goin' 
on  steady  and  regular,  while  other  men  are  sort  o' 
preparin'  to  get  ready." 

Last  year  I  visited  Jim  again.  Walking  out  to 
his  place,  I  met  him  driving  a  span  of  gigantic 
mules  harnessed  to  a  wagon-load  of  stone.  He 
stopped  his  team,  and  sprang  off  his  load,  in  order 
to  greet  me.  Then,  as  there  was  a  long  reach  of 
level  road  ahead,  he  invited  me  to  share  his  seat, 
and  we  talked  of  old  times,  of  the  state  of  the 
country,  and  of  his  affairs.  He  had  made  the  last 
payment  for  his  place  some  months  before,  owned 
the  team  he  was  driving,  and  had  made  various 
improvements  on  the  land,  as  he  would  show  me 
in  the  afternoon.  He  told  me,  among  other 
things,  that  a  few  years  before  he  had  bought,  for 
a  merely  nominal  sum,  the  privilege  of  cleaning 
the  streets  of  the  neighboring  town,  removing  the 
sweepings  to  his  place  for  their  value  as  fertilizing 
material.  He  said  the  streets  had  not  been  cleaned 
before,  in  any  thorough  or  systematic  way,  and 
that  at  first  he  could  not  induce  even  idle  men  who 
were  in  quest  of  employment  to  assist  in  cleaning 
them  for  good  wages.  "  No,"  said  one  of  the  col- 
ored men,  "  I'se  had  pretty  hard  times  ;  I'se  had 
to  git  down  pretty  low,  but  I'se  never  come  to 
that."  But  Jim  soon  changed  that  by  going  into 
town  on  Saturday,  when  the  streets  were  full  of 


94  THREE  TYPICAL    WORKINGMEN. 

people,  and  loading  up  his  cart  before  a  crowd  of 
wondering  boys.  One  or  two  acquaintances  jeered 
good-naturedly  ;  but  Jim  soon  extended  his  opera- 
tions, and  hired  men  and  boys  to  collect  the  street 
sweepings,  litter  from  stables  and  barns,  and  rub- 
bish from  door-yards,  all  of  Avhich  enriched  his 
land,  and  left  the  town  one  of  the  cleanest  I  liave 
seen,  whereas  it  was  formerly  a  very  dirty  one. 
"  You  see,"  said  he,  "  my  ground  will  bear  a  deal 
of  fertilizing.  It  has  a  clay  subsoil,  and  will  keep 
all  I  give  it." 

In  the  afternoon  we  looked  over  his  place  to- 
gether. There  was  hardly  a  trace  of  its  old  ap- 
pearance left.  All  the  ground  had  been  brought 
under  cultivation ;  a  barn  had  been  built,  trees 
planted,  and  the  cabin  enlarged.  I  saw  a  work- 
bench under  a  shed,  and  stopped  to  look  at  the 
tools.  "  Yes,"  said  Jim,  "  our  workingmen  buy 
too  many  things ;  buy  things  that  they  ought  to 
make  for  themselves.  I've  saved  a  good  many 
dollars  here,  and  have  n't  lost  any  time,  for  I 
should  have  to  go  twice  to  town  for  each  job  of 
repairing  done  there."  In  the  house  the  furniture 
was  nearly  all  home-made.  (I  have  been  in  scores 
of  the  homes  of  unemployed  workingmen,  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  our  country,  during  the  last  five 
years,  where  the  chairs,  tables,  and  bedsteads  were 
all  worn  out  and  breaking  down,  so  that  in  many 
instances  there  was  not  a  safe  or  comfortable  seat 
in  the  house.  Yet  the  furniture  had  all  been 
bought  of  dealers  at  high  prices,  if  we  consider 


THREE  TYPICAL    WORKINGMEN.  95 

its  quality  and  its  capacity  for  use,  —  or  ratlier 
for  going  to  pieces, —  and  these  workingmen  were 
not  able  to  repair  it,  or  even  to  make  new  stools 
on  winch  to  sit  while  eating  their  food.  They  had 
been  at  work  in  shops,  mills,  or  factories,  and 
when  these  closed  had  so  little  power  of  self-help 
that  months  of  idleness  passed  without  anything 
being  done  to  make  their  homes  more  comfortable. 
In  such  cases  everything  that  comes  into  the  house, 
or  that  is  used  about  it,  must  be  bought,  and  re- 
quires money  for  its  purchase.) 

The  old  colored  woman  was  still  housekeeper. 
On  shelves  against  the  wall  I  saw  two  or  three 
volumes  of  Gray's  botanies,  with  some  recent 
books  on  chemistry,  geology,  and  mineralogy.  "  I 
thought  I  would  learn  something  about  my  own 
ground  and  what  grows  on  it.  I  have  given  very 
little  time  to  these  things,  —  a  few  minutes  now 
and  then  after  dinner,  or  while  the  mules  were 
resting ;  but  it  has  been  a  kind  of  rest  to  me  when 
I  was  tired  to  look  for  things,  and  then  try  to 
learn  about  them  after  I  had  found  them.  I  was 
surprised  to  find  so  many  kinds  of  plants  on  this 
small  piece  of  ground.  I  have  found  several 
which  the  books  say  are  rare,  and  it  is  likely 
there  ai*e  many  that  I  have  not  happened  to  see." 

*'  Did  you  have  no  instruction  ?  " 

"  Only  from  the  books,  at  first,  but  they  are 
very  plain.  All  one  needs  is  a  start.  I  was  plow- 
ing here  one  day,  when  a  man  came  along  and 
asked  if  he  might  walk  over  the  field  and  look  at 


96  THREE   TYPICAL    WORKINGMEN. 

•what  grew  on  my  gi'ound.  I  said,  Yea,  and  asked 
if  I  might  go  along.  So  I  let  my  team  stand,  for 
I  thought  it  worth  while  to  leave  my  work  for  an 
hour  if  I  could  learn  something.  The  gentleman 
knew  about  plants,  and  gave  me  some  good  hints, 
and  said  the  real  good  of  such  studies  was  in  the 
discipline  or  cultivation  that  we  get  by  observing 
and  comparing  things.  It  was  an  hour  well  spent. 
The  gentleman  advised  me  to  make  a  list  or  rec- 
ord of  all  the  plants  and  trees  growing  here,  and 
also  of  the  different  minerals  and  kinds  of  stone ; 
but  I  do  not  get  along  very  fast  with  it.  Some- 
times I  wish  I  could  have  been  here  before  the 
place  was  worked  over  so  much."  There  were 
many  geological  and  mineral ogical  specimens  in  a 
little  cabinet ;  a  few  of  them  such  as  would  be 
highly  valued  by  collectors.  "  I  have  come  really 
to  love  the  place,"  said  my  yoiuig  friend,  "  but  I 
am  going  to  leave  it  soon." 

"  Why,"  said  I,  "  why  is  that  ?  " 

*'  Well,  it  is  getting  to  be  very  comfortable 
here,  and  easy,  and  I  am  too  young  for  that. 
Whenever  I  see  a  rough,  wild  piece  of  ground, 
that  has  never  had  any  chance,  I  feel  like  taking 
hold  to  see  what  can  be  made  of  it.  W^e  never 
know  what  is  in  such  a  wild,  forsaken  place  till 
we  begin  to  work  with  it ;  then  the  land  seems 
to  take  hold  and  do  the  best  it  can.  There 's  a 
very  rough  place  out  among  the  hills,  a  few  miles 
from  here,  that  I  should  like  to  make  a  partner- 
ship with  for  a  few  years.     It 's  entirely  different 


THREE   TYPICAL   WORKINGMEN.  97 

from  this,  so  I  shall  like  it  for  that.  It 's  full  of 
rocks,  and  is  very  uneven,  with  another  kind  of 
soil,  and  I  shall  have  to  learn  nearly  everything 
new.     I  have  concluded  to  buy  it." 

In  the  evening  Jim  harnessed  his  mules  and 
drove  me  to  town.  As  we  left  his  gate  I  said, 
"  You  like  mules  best  ?  " 

He  laughed,  and  answered,  "  They  are  not 
handsome,  but  in  the  mud  and  on  rough  ground 
they  can  do  what 's  wanted  of  them,  and  are  worth 
more  than  fine  horses.  I  think,  sometimes, 
there  's  a  good  deal  of  hard  mule  work  wanted  in 
this  country.  I  know  when  I  came  here  I  needed 
about  as  much  straightening  out  as  this  piece  of 
ground  ;  and  you  remember  how  it  looked.  The 
mules  have  helped  me  a  little,  besides  improving 
the  place." 

"  Have  you  not  wished  you  had  some  easier 
work?  Some  of  your  neighbors  here,  I  believe, 
think  men  ought  not  to  work  so  much  or  so 
hard." 

"  I  do  not  know  how  it  may  be  with  others,  — 
though  I  think  most  young  fellows  are  much  alike, 
—  but  it  takes  about  twelve  hours  a  day  to  keep 
me  up  to  what  a  man  ought  to  be.  I  am  some- 
times almost  frightened  to  find  how  fast  the  weeds 
will  grow  in  a  fellow's  disposition  with  a  little 
idleness.  All  sorts  of  unprofitable  and  dreamy 
thoughts  come  up,  and  get  stronger  and  stronger. 
It  would  not  take  long  to  feel  meddlesome  and 
envious  and  sour  and  discontented.  I  believe  I 
7 


98  THREE   TYPICAL    WORKINGMEN. 

should  soon  be  a  savage  if  it  were  not  for  hard 
work." 

"  Do  you  see  much  of  other  young  men  here  ?  " 
"  Most  of  them  belong  to  so  many  societies  in 
the  town  that  they  have  no  time  for  anything  but 
their  meetings.  They  wanted  me  to  join  all  of 
them,  and  I  asked  what  they  did.  So  they  told 
me  their  course  of  proceeding  for  the  evening. 
That  might  do  very  well  for  one  time,  I  thought, 
but  they  said  they  did  the  same  things  over  again 
every  time  they  came  together,  and  that  would 
not  do  for  me.  The  young  fellows  that  belong  to 
these  societies  don't  seem  to  know  what  to  do 
with  themselves  when  they  are  at  home  or  alone." 
"Do  they  seem  to  be  well  informed?  " 
"  None  of  us  are  well  informed.  A  few  of  us 
know  a  little  of  a  good  many  things,  but  we  know 
nothing  to  the  bottom.  And  now  this  reminds 
me  of  what  I  have  for  a  long  time  wished  to  ask 
you.  What  shall  I  read  ?  What  can  I  tell  these 
young  men  to  read?  Some  of  them  are  not  satis- 
fied with  the  way  they  are  going  on.  One  day  I 
was  thinking  how  reasonable  it  was  that  I  should 
know  something  about  the  ground  I  was  working 
over  every  day,  and  I  wished  I  could  know  about 
the  history  of  this  very  spot  all  the  way  through 
the  old  ages,  and  how  it  had  come  to  be  what  it  is 
now.  I  thought  it  might  help  me  to  know  what 
to  do  with  it.  And  I  should  like  to  know  about 
human  society,  especially  in  our  own  countiy,  — 
about  the  changes  and  steps  by  which  it  has  come 


THREE  TYPICAL    WORKINGMEN.  99 

to  be  what  it  is  now.  T  can't  find  out  very  well 
what  it  is  now,  —  what  is  the  real  condition  of 
things.  I  see  different  people  working  in  differ- 
ent directions.  Some  of  these  movements  must 
be  wrong,  and  I  should  like  to  know  which  I 
ought  to  help  and  work  with.  I  can't  read  the 
great  newspapers.  They  are  too  large,  and  it 
would  take  more  time  than  workingmen  can  spare 
to  read  them.  The  writers  seem  to  think  people 
have  nothing  else  to  do  but  read  their  long  arti- 
cles. Is  there  any  rather  small  paper  that  will 
tell  the  truth  and  explain  things  plainly,  that  I 
can  read  and  show  to  the  young  men  about 
here?" 

(The  same  inquiry  has  been  addressed  to  me 
hundreds  of  times  during  the  last  dozen  years  by 
workingmen  in  nearly  all  the  Northern  States, 
when  I  have  conversed  with  them  about  the  state 
of  the  country  and  the  interests  and  duties  of 
their  class.  I  have  always  had  to  answer  that 
although  we  have  a  few  invaluable  publications 
which  are  organs  of  wise  and  sound  thinking,  they 
are  for  the  most  part  addressed  to  the  cultivated 
classes,  and  are  more  elaborate  and  bookish,  as 
well  as  more  costly,  than  reading  for  workingmen 
should  be ;  and  that  there  is  as  yet  no  such  means 
for  the  education  of  the  workingmen  as  such  a  pa- 
per would  supply.  Of  late  1  have  to  reflect  that, 
although  I  cannot  yet  point  workingmen  to  such  a 
newspaper  as  they  need,  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  tliem  receive  each  week  one  that  is  devoted  to 


100         THREE    TYPICAL    WORKINGMEN. 

the  propagation  of  theories  of  government  and  a 
philosophy  of  life  which,  if  generally  accepted  by 
its  readers,  must  not  only  stimulate  the  growth 
of  erroneous  opinions,  but  also  lower  the  tone  and 
standard  of  character  among  American  working- 
men  ;  and  this  organ  of  illusion  and  destructive 
error,  although  as  large  as  our  leading  American 
newspapers,  is  supplied  to  subscribers  for  twenty- 
five  cents  per  year.  Why  should  sound  and 
wholesome  teaching  cost  so  much  more  than  that 
which  is  mischievous?  Although  the  exponents 
of  prehistoric  or  uncivilized  thought  claim  to  be 
the  friends  and  representatives  of  the  poor,  they 
are  not  without  means  for  the  propagation  of 
their  ideas.  They  give  their  publishing  enter- 
prises a  vigorous  support,  and  are  ready  to  pay 
large  sums  for  the  services  of  acceptable  speak- 
ers.) I  told  my  young  friend  I  thought  there 
would  be  such  a  paper  before  many  years  had 
passed,  and  advised  him  to  ask  two  or  three  of  the 
most  thoughtful  young  men  to  join  him  in  taking 
some  of  the  best  newspapers,  and  to  buy  such 
numbers  of  the  magazines  as  contain  articles  of 
special  interest  and  value ;  and  then  we  parted. 

My  observation  of  the  life  and  thought  of  work- 
ingmen  impresses  me  with  the  conviction  that  the 
cultivated  men  of  the  country  are  not,  in  a  suffi- 
cient degree,  in  communication  with  the  great 
body  of  the  laboring  people ;  and  that  a  more 
direct  and  vital  relation  between  them  would  be 


THREE   TYPICAL   WORKINGMEN.         101 

a  great  gain  to  both  classes.  The  things  which 
our  best  and  wisest  men  are  saying  to  each  other 
should  be  addressed,  and  in  suitable  forms  of  ut- 
terance might  be  addressed,  to  the  workingmen 
of  the  nation. 

There  is  danger  that  we  shall  accept  as  neces- 
sary and  inevitable  the  permanence  of  the  condi- 
tions which  have  produced  our  present  difficul- 
ties ;  that  even  our  leaders,  those  who  "  in  their 
motion  are  full-welling  fountain-heads  of  change," 
may  not  see  how  imperative  is  the  need  of  a  sys- 
tem of  education  that  shall  be  so  disciplinary  of 
the  mass  of  the  people  as  to  make  them  truly  self- 
governing  ;  or,  in  other  words,  to  make  purely 
democratic  institutions  compatible  with  progress 
in  civilization.  Existing  means  and  agencies  for 
the  political  education  of  our  people  are  very  inad- 
equate. We  have  depended  upon  our  common 
schools  for  results  which  they  alone  could  not 
possibly  produce. 

I  suppose  few  intelligent  men  now  think  our 
chief  peril  is  from  communistic  outbreaks  or  rev- 
olution. But  it  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  peo- 
ple should  so  readily  conclude  that  if  we  are  not 
threatened  by  this  particular  danger  we  have  no 
cause  for  apprehension  ;  and  that  the  condition 
and  prospects  of  our  country  are  therefore,  on  the 
whole,  satisfactory  and  encouraging.  About  the 
utmost  mischief  in  the  power  of  communistic 
mobs  would  be  the  burning  of  some  of  our  cities, 
and  to  accomplish  even   so   much   as   that   they 


102         THREE  TYPICAL   WORKINGMEN. 

would  have  to  be  aided  by  the  accidental  concur- 
rence of  many  favoring  conditions.  But  history 
shows  us  that  nations  have  often  been  lulled  into 
fancied  security  by  their  deliverance  from  one 
form  of  danger,  while  from  sources  unnoticed  or 
deemed  contemptible  more  serious  mischiefs  arose, 
and  wrought  lasting  injury. 

Are  not  the  conditions  of  intellectual  soil  and 
atmosphere  favorable  for  the  growth  of  plausible 
fallacies,  of  illusions  about  what  can  be  accom- 
plished by  legislation  in  "lightening  the  burdens 
of  poverty  and  toil,  and  bringing  back  the  days 
of  prosperity  to  a  suffering  people,"  — illusions 
which  will  lead  the  minds  of  men  away  from  the 
study  of  the  real  problems  of  the  time,  and  make 
them  more  and  more  impatient  and  unteachable  ? 
May  we  not  reasonably  anticipate  a  long  period 
of  wasteful  and  often  very  perilous  experiments 
(if  we  can  rightly  use  the  word  "  experiment  " 
for  what  is  the  result  of  mere  impulse  and  reck- 
lessness ;  for  what  is  undertaken  without  fore- 
sight, carried  forward  without  critical  observation 
or  intelligence,  and  looked  back  to  when  it  is  past 
with  no  increase  of  wisdom  from  experience),  — 
experiments  which  will  greatly  exhaust  the  na- 
tional vitality  and  resources,  and  which  are  there- 
fore too  costly  to  be  undertaken  if  they  can  be 
avoided  ?  But  it  is  common  among  cultivated 
people,  who  feel,  not  unreasonably,  a  kind  of  awe 
of  the  vastness  and  complexity  of  our  modern 
life,  to  urge  that  each  of  these  mischievous  falla- 


THREE  TYPICAL   WORKINGMEN.         103 

cies  and  illusions  "  will  play  its  part  in  the  edu- 
cation of  the  people,"  and  that  the  result  of  this 
educational  process  is  what  we  must  chiefly  de- 
pend upon  for  the  increase  of  wisdom  among  us, 
and  for  the  development  of  such  qualities  in  the 
national  character  as  shall  secure  our  continued 
progress  in  civilization. 

Let  us  examine  this  briefly.  We  have  need  of 
clear  thinking  here.  A  trust  in  events,  in  gen- 
eral conditions,  and  in  the  influence  of  the  total 
environment  of  society,  as  the  chief  means  or 
sources  of  change,  is  one  of  the  prominent  feat- 
ures of  modern  cultivated  thought.  As  it  is  now 
held,  this  trust,  with  the  scientific  and  philosophi- 
cal theories  with  which  it  is  correlated,  marks  an 
important  stage  in  intellectual  and  social  evolu- 
tion, but  it  admits  of  modification  and  further  de- 
velopment. We  are  apt  to  be  somewhat  dazed 
and  bewildered  by  the  modern  revelations  of  the 
immensity  of  the  universe.  Everywhere  we  en- 
counter a  tangle  and  maze  of  elements,  conditions, 
and  relations,  practically  of  infinite  extent;  and 
in  the  study  of  civilization,  or  the  evolution  of  so- 
ciety, this  impression  of  the  slow  working  of  re- 
sistless forces,  through  a  limitless  complexity  of 
causes  and  effects,  recurs  continually,  and  with 
especial  emphasis.  If  everything  around  us  is  the 
result  of  movements  which  began  when  the  pri- 
mordial atoms  floated  together,  where  is  there 
room  for  us  to  put  in  our  hand  ?  What  can  we 
do   but  wait  for  events  ?     The   moral  or  social 


104         THREE  TYPICAL   WORKINGMEN. 

world  seems  to  many  of  the  cultivated  minds  of 
our  time  a  great  stage  for  the  vast  spectacular 
drama  of  history.  It  is  one  of  their  illusions  that 
they  are  only  spectators  and  critics  of  the  play. 
But  the  vast,  eternal  movement  easily  incorpo- 
rates human  and  personal  effort.  A  man's  thought 
or  work  becomes,  in  the  measure  of  his  wisdom 
and  personal  vitality,  a  factor  in  the  life  of  his 
time,  a  source  of  change,  a  cause  which  transmits 
some  effect  to  the  near  future. 

But,  more  specifically,  men  and  nations  are  com- 
monly educated  by  events  only  as  the  events  are 
wisely  interpreted  and  explained  by  competent 
teachers  and  guides.  There  is  no  magical  power 
in  the  mere  succession  of  occurrences  of  any  kind 
to  give  men  wisdom.  One  insanity  or  popular  de- 
lusion may  succeed  another,  leading  to  any  num- 
ber of  disastrous  experiments,  and  the  masses  may 
garner  no  stores  of  valuable  experience  from  such 
fateful  seed-sowing,  unless  the  time  brings  forward 
teachers  who  can  show  to  the  people  the  meaning, 
origin,  and  tendencies  of  contemporary  events ; 
who  can  come  to  their  work  with  a  power  of  anal- 
ysis which  will  enable  them  to  distinguish  the 
several  factors  of  the  life  of  the  time,  and  a  syn- 
thetic judgment  by  which  to  estimate  the  national 
character,  position,  and  capabilities.  The  great 
need  of  our  people  to-day  is  precisely  this  wise  in- 
terpretation of  the  events  of  the  last  twenty  years, 
this  competent  explanation  of  current  legislation 
and  the  other  important  factors  of  our  national 


THREE  TYPICAL   WORKINGMEN.         106 

life  and  thought.  Even  partisans  should  be  able 
to  appreciate  the  fact  that  much  of  the  prev- 
alent dissatisf acton  with  the  older  political  organ- 
izations Iras  been  produced  by  the  partisan  inter- 
pretations of  political  issues  and  events  so  persist- 
ently advanced  by  the  newspapers  and  orators  of 
both  parties.  The  substitution  of  unreal  for  real 
issues  has  been  so  general  that  the  people  have 
nearly  everywhere  recognized  it,  and  many  of 
those  whom  they  formerly  trusted  are  not  now  be- 
lieved even  when  they  tell  the  truth. 


WORKINGMEN'S  WIVES. 

In  these  studies  of  American  life  nothing  is  in- 
vented or  purposely  colored.  They  are  reports  of 
the  experience  and  talk  of  persons  I  have  known, 
and  their  interest,  for  me  at  least,  is  in  the  thought 
of  these  men  and  women,  in  the  effect  of  their 
circumstances,  experience,  and  total  environment 
upon  their  intellectual  character  and  activities. 
In  all  my  acquaintance  with  the  working  people, 
I  have  observed  that  the  women  appear  to  be  de- 
pressed and  injured  less  than  the  men  by  the 
hardships  of  their  life.  The  anxiety  and  suffer- 
ing to  which  so  many  of  them  have  been  exposed 
during  the  last  few  years  have  usually  been  borne 
by  the  wives  of  workingmen  with  superior  pa- 
tience and  courage,  and  they  have  developed  such 
readiness  of  resource  as  yields  only  to  absolute  im- 
possibilities. In  many  cases  the  wives  of  work- 
ingmen have  for  several  years  supported  their  fam- 
ilies almost  entirely.  While  there  has  been  no 
work  for  the  men,  the  women  have  done  washing, 
sewing,  and  general  housework  for  all  who  would 
en>ploy  them.  Some  women  do  the  washing  for 
half  a  dozen  families  each  week.  In  such  crises 
their  own  home-work  must  be  done  at  night,  and 
on  Sunday.     But  there  are  few  women  who  have 


WORKINGMEN'S  WI VES.  107 

strength  for  so  much  work  of  this  kind,  and  fami- 
lies often  live  upon  what  the  wife  and  mother 
receives  for  two,  three,  or  four  days'  work  each 
week.  Sometimes  the  men  assist  their  wives  in 
the  home  housekeeping,  and  even  in  the  washing 
which  is  taken  in  for  the  neighbors,  but  I  have 
seen  few  workingmen  who  seemed  able  or  in- 
clined to  render  much  assistance  in  women's  work, 
although  idle  for  months  together. 

Workingmen's  wives  are,  as  a  class  (so  far  as 
my  acquaintance  extends),  more  saving  or  eco- 
nomical than  their  husbands.  They  have  also 
less  dislike  for  small  jobs,  and  less  contempt  for 
the  trifling  sums  received  for  them.  I  am  com- 
pelled to  say  that  many  workingmen  appear  un- 
willing to  accept  transient  employment,  especially 
if  of  a  kind  to  which  they  are  not  accustomed; 
but  their  wives  are  usually  ready  for  any  kind  of 
work,  however  disagreeable  or  poorly  paid  it  may 
be.  The  men  often  yield  to  complete  discourage- 
ment, and  become  listless  and  stupid,  and  are  sour 
and  cross  at  home,  until,  unable  longer  to  endure 
the  misery  of  inaction,  they  take  to  the  road  and 
become  tramps.  It  is  easy  to  censure  the  folly  of 
leaving  home  for  work  in  times  like  these,  but 
few  persons  who  live  comfortably  understand  the 
mental  strain  and  torture  borne  by  unemployed 
workingmen,  who  see  at  each  meal  that  every 
mouthful  on  the  table  is  really  needed  by  their 
children.  Hunger  does  not  make  men  philosoph- 
ical.    In  the  cities  and  larger  towns  some  work- 


108  WORKINGMEirS  WIVES. 

ingraen's  wives  take  to  drink,  as  do  the  men,  when 
their  condition  and  prospects  have  become  desper- 
ate, but  among  working  women  who  do  not  drink, 
I  have  never  yet  seen  one  relinquish  effort  and 
yield  to  despair.  Even  when  the  wolf  has  long 
been  inside  the  door,  and  life  is  a  daily  struggle 
Avith  pinching  want,  I  have  noted  the  silent  en- 
durance of  workingmen's  wives,  the  effort  always 
renewed,  the  spirit  which  never  yields. 

One  such  woman,  whom  I  have  known  for  sev- 
eral years,  has  often  excited  my  wonder  by  the 
quiet  strength  and  beauty  of  her  character.  She 
is  about  thirty-five  years  of  age.  Her  father  was 
a  prosperous  farmer,  and  she  grew  up  in  the  large, 
old-fashioned  farm-house,  where  the  abundance  of 
hired  help  made  it  unnecessary  for  her  to  do  any- 
thing beyond  taking  care  of  her  own  room  and 
clothing.  But  she  learned  housekeeping  in  the 
intervals  of  attending  school,  taught  school  two 
or  three  years  near  her  home,  and  then  married  a 
business  man  whose  fortune,  consisting  largely  of 
landed  property,  was  amply  sufficient  to  promise 
a  life  of  comfort,  and  the  opportunities  for  intel- 
lectual improvement  which  she  so  much  coveted. 
Their  life  was  pleasant  and  prosperous  until  a  few 
years  after  the  war.  Then  her  husband  sold  his 
property  and  removed  to  a  distant  State,  where  he 
bought  a  farm  which  had  been  exhausted  by  bad 
tillage,  and  which  required  extensive  improve- 
ments. About  this  period  the  approach  of  the 
hard  times  began  to  be  foreshadowed  by  a  gen- 


WORKINGMElSrS  WIVES.  109 

eral  decline  in  values,  to  the  consequent  disap- 
pointment of  business  men  who  had  looked  for 
profits  from  the  continued  vise  in  prices. 

Some  of  the  men  to  whom  our  friend  had  sold 
portions  of  his  property  were  unable  to  pay. 
Loans  which  he  had  thought  well  secured  were 
not  repaid,  and  could  not  be  collected.  The 
man's  health  declined,  and  he  was  obliged  to  hire 
all  the  labor  required  in  the  cultivation  of  his 
land.  It  soon  appeared  to  be  advisable  to  sell  the 
farm,  as  it  was  rapidly  absorbing  all  that  remained 
of  his  money,  and  yielding  very  little  in  return. 
It  was  sold  for  an  amount  much  less  than  the  ag- 
gregate cost  of  the  land  and  the  improvements. 
A  house  was  bought  in  a  small  town  at  a  price 
which  now  seems  extravagant.  About  half  of  it 
was  paid  at  the  time  out  of  the  money  received 
for  the  farm,  and  a  mortgage  on  the  house  given 
to  secure  the  remainder.  Most  of  these  changes 
now  appear  to  have  been  unfortunate,  but  they 
were  such  as  many  business  men  were  making  in 
those  years,  and  to  have  followed  a  wiser  course 
would  have  required  a  degree  of  foresight  which 
very  few  at  that  time  possessed.  Our  friends  soon 
found  themselves  without  any  assured  income. 
The  hope  of  receiving  something  on  various  old 
debts  was  not  relinquished  until  several  years 
later,  but  it  has  never  been  realized.  There  were 
now  four  persons  in  the  household,  the  two  chil- 
dren being  nearly  old  enough  to  go  to  school.  The 
father  hoped  to  find  in  the  village  some  employ- 


110  WORKINGMElSrS  WIVES. 

ment  which  would  enable  him  to  support  his  fam- 
ily, but  salaries  were  being  rapidly  reduced,  and 
each  month  added  to  the  number  of  men  seeking 
places.  About  this  time  the  wife  was  engaged  for 
some  months  in  sewing  straw  goods  at  home  for 
manufacturers  in  one  of  our  large  cities.  It  did 
not  yet  appear  absolutely  necessary  for  her  to  earn 
money  for  the  sustenance  of  the  family,  but  she 
preferred  to  help.  Their  state  and  prospects  be- 
came more  serious,  and  the  piano  was  sold.  It 
had  been  a  marriage  gift  to  the  wife  from  her 
mother. 

Part  of  the  money  obtained  by  the  sale  of  the 
piano  was  used  to  buy  a  sewing-machine  ;  and 
while  the  husband  did  what  he  could  as  a  day  la- 
borer, at  gardening,  farm-work,  sawing  wood,  etc., 
the  wife  took  sewing  from  a  large  manufactory  of 
woolen  clothing.  The  price  for  her  work  was 
ninety  cents  per  dozen  of  the  garments  upon  which 
she  was  employed.  For  several  months  she  used 
the  sewing-machine  fifteen  hours  per  day,  and  by 
working  for  that  length  of  time  she  could  make 
three  fourths  of  a  dozen  of  these  garments  each 
day.  She  was  thus  able  to  earn  three  and  a  half 
or  four  dollars  per  week.  But  the  labor  was  too 
great  for  her  strength,  and  in  less  than  a  year  she 
was  compelled  to  relinquish  it.  During  this  pe- 
riod she  was  often  unable  to  sleep  from  the  weari- 
ness and  pain  resulting  from  excessive  labor. 

The  first  payment  made  on  the  village  property 
was  also  the  last.     All  that  could  be  obtained  by 


WORKIN OMEN'S  WIVES.  Ill 

the  efforts  of  both  husband  and  wife  was  often 
insufficient  to  supply  the  family  with  needed  food. 
The  man's  strength  declined  so  much  that  his 
labor  was  not  very  profitable  either  to  himself  or 
to  his  employers.  It  became  impossible  to  pay 
the  interest  on  the  debt  for  the  house,  now  over- 
due, and  the  property  was  surrendered  to  the  for- 
mer owner.  Owing  to  the  great  decline  in  values, 
it  would  not  now  have  sold  for  more  than  the 
amount  which  was  still  due  on  it.  Since  that 
time  this  woman  has  paid  rent  for  the  house 
which  she  once  hoped  soon  to  own.  It  is  but  six 
dollars  per  month,  yet  that  is  a  large  sum  for  her. 
There  have  been  many  dark  days.  After  it  be- 
came plain  that  the  work  with  the  sewing-machine 
could  not  be  kept  up,  my  friend  learned  to  make 
various  small  articles  of  women's  apparel  then  in 
fashion,  and  has  kept  a  small  store  of  them  at  her 
home  for  sale,  and  has  taken  orders  from  custom- 
ers for  their  manufacture.  The  family  needs  for 
food,  as  she  has  told  me,  three  dollars  and  a  half 
per  week,  but  there  have  been  many  times  when 
they  lived  on  a  dollar  per  week.  Sometimes  in 
winter  they  have  been  without  food  or  fuel.  They 
often  live  almost  wholly  upon  bread,  and  have  no 
meat  for  weeks  together.  The  woman  is  a  mem- 
ber of  a  prosperous  church,  and  attends  its  meet- 
ings with  great  regularity. 

"  Does  your  minister  come  to  see  you  ?  "  I  in- 
quired. 

"  Oh  yes." 


112  WORKINGMEN'S  WIVES. 

"  Does  he  know  how  you  are  situated  ?  " 

"  No." 

"  Why  do  you  not  tell  him  ?  " 

"  He  has  not  asked  me,  or  spoken  of  such 
things,  and  I  would  rather  converse  with  him  on 
other  subjects." 

"  But  some  of  your  friends  in  the  church  are 
acquainted  with  your  circumstances?  " 

"  They  know  that  we  have  nothing  to  live  on 
but  what  I  earn,  except  when  my  husband  can  do 
a  little  work  now  and  then  ;  but  I  do  not  think 
they  know  anything  about  how  much  or  how  little 
we  have."  Here  she  paused,  and  I  saw  that  she 
was  making  an  effort  to  speak  quietly.  Her  lips 
moved  in  silence,  but  she  soon  spoke  again  in  the 
same  clear  voice:  "It  is  sometimes  hard  to  be  told 
that  such  and  such  ladies  have  remarked  that  I  am 
always  wonderfully  well  dressed.  It  is  quite  cer- 
tain that  I  should  have  more  work  if  I  were  rag- 
ged and  slovenly.  People  would  interest  them- 
selves about  me,  and  give  me  something  to  do,  if 
I  gave  up  trying  to  be  neat.  But  I  can't  do  that, 
you  know."  And  she  laughed  gayly,  though  her 
eyes  were  ready  to  overflow. 

She  possesses  in  an  unusual  degree  the  power, 
apparently  so  easy  and  natural  for  some  women,  of 
dressing  with  exquisite  taste,  even  with  the  poor- 
est materials.     My  wife  says  that  Mrs. would 

appear  well  dressed  if  she  had  only  an  Indian 
blanket,  and  \\*ould  somehow  make  it  look  about 
the  same  as  the  costume  of  all  women  of  taste. 


WORKINGMEN'S  WIVES.  113 

People  say  that  she  does  not  look  like  a  working 
woman.  After  a  few  months'  rest  from  work 
with  the  sewing-machine  she  grew  stronger,  an  I 
undertook  dress-making,  an  industry  which  she 
still  practices.  But  there  are  many  others  en- 
gaged in  it ;  many  ladies  do  their  own  sewing  of 
late,  as  a  measure  of  necessary  economy  ;  and  our 
friend  often  has  great  difficulty  in  obtaining  suffi- 
cient work.  She  feels  that  debt  would  be  failure 
and  ruin.  "  I  could  never  keep  up  heart  and  en- 
ergy if  we  were  in  debt." 

"  What  are  your  expectations,  your  hopes,  for 
the  next  few  years  ?  " 

"  My  children  have  thus  far  been  kept  at 
school ;  they  are  doing  well  in  their  studies,  and 
I  feel  that  they  must,  at  any  cost,  have  a  tolerable 
education.  My  daughter,  now  about  fourteen 
years  of  age,  has  a  passion  for  teaching ;  and  it  is 
my  utmost  ambition,  I  suppose  I  may  say,  to  fit 
her  for  that  work.  My  hope  is  that  my  health 
and  strength  may  hold  out,  and  that  I  maj'  have 
"work  enough  for  the  support  of  my  family,  and 
especially  to  pay  my  house  rent." 

"  Do  you  ever  look  back  with  regret  ?  " 
"  I  have  not  time,  and  if  T  had   that  would  bo 
foolish  and  useless." 

"  Do  you  blame  anybody  for  your  hardships  ?  " 

*'  I  feel  sometimes,  as  I  suppose  all  women  do 

in  such   circumstances,  like  saying,  '  If  you  had 

only  taken  my  advice,  or  done  as  I  wished ; '  but 


114  WORKINGMEN'S    WIVES. 

it  would  do  no  good,  and  I  have  never  allowed 
myself  to  say  it." 

"  Does  it  seem  to  you  that  people  are  cold  and 
harsh  and  unkind  ?  " 

"  No  ;  they  are  generally  kind-hearted.  They 
are  sometimes  thoughtless,  but  we  must  expect 
that.  Not  many  know  much  about  the  lives  of 
those  around  them." 

"  Does  your  religion  help  you  ?  is  it  a  real  force 
and  aid  ?  " 

"  Yes  ;  there  are  times  when  I  could  not  go  on, 
or  have  the  strength.  I  need,  without  it.  I  am  not 
a  very  pious  person,  —  not  enthusiastically  re- 
ligious ;  I  do  not  expect  that  God  will  do  my 
work  for  me,  or  make  everything  easy  and  pleas- 
ant ;  but  I  could  not  live,  I  think,  without  the  feel- 
ing that  his  goodness  and  justice  and  love  are  over 
all  things,  and  that  somehow,  in  ways  I  cannot 
understand.  He  is  with  me  and  cares  for  me  in  the 
darkest  times.  I  am  obliged  to  believe  that  help 
is  sent  me  sometimes  in  answer  to  prayer." 

"  Then,  why  is  it  not  always  sent  ?  why  is 
prayer  not  always  answered  ?  " 

"  That  is  not  for  me  to  understand." 

This  woman's  religion  appears  to  be  a  real  force 
in  her  life.  There  seems  to  be  but  little  mysti- 
cism in  her  thought.  She  does  cheerfully  and 
courageously  all  that  lies  in  her  power,  and  en- 
dures patiently  the  hardships  she  cannot  avoid. 
She  is  certainly  made  stronger  by  her  faith  in  the 
divine  goodness,  which,  in  spite  of  appearances  to 


WORKINGMEN'S  WIVES.  116 

the  contrary,  she  believes  is  at  the  heart  of  things, 
and  is  a  factor  in  all  human  affairs.  She  thinks 
that  human  labor,  wisdom,  and  self-sacrifice  are 
necessary  for  the  right  direction  of  human  life, 
individual  and  social ;  and  that  men  must  learn 
how  to  avoid  and  cure  the  evils  that  now  afflict 
society.  "  God  will  not  do  these  things  for  us, 
but  He  will  help  us  if  we  do  our  best  in  any  good 
work."  She  does  not  seem  to  have  been  injured 
by  her  harsh  and  trying  experience.  I  have  ob- 
served that  many  women  (and  men  too)  are  made 
cynical  by  hardship ;  others  adopt  eccentric  theo- 
ries about  religion  or  the  organization  of  society, 
and  console  themselves  by  a  vehement  advocacy  of 
those  opinions,  or  steep  their  faculties  in  benumb- 
ing dreams  of  the  future,  losing  thus  all  power  and 
disposition  for  present  struggle.  But  this  woman, 
while  ready  for  any  drudgery  that  will  enable  her 
to  suppoi't  her  family,  has  lost  no  iota  of  self-re- 
spect, and  does  not  seem  to  have  been  in  any  wise 
weakened  or  degraded  by  trial  and  suffering.  She 
retains  her  old  interest  in  culture,  especially  in  lit- 
erature, and  manages  to  read  each  year  a  few  good 
books.  She  is  well  acquainted  with  the  writings 
of  the  best  American  and  English  poets,  and  likes 
biography  and  essays.  She  converses  well,  has  a 
fine  presence,  and  is  always  in  request  to  preside 
at  tables  at  church  fairs  and  festivals.  Our 
friend's  circumstances  do  not  of  course  permit  her 
to  be  much  in  society.  She  is  rarely  away  from 
home,  and  has  no  traits  or  qualities  that  would  fit 


116  WORKINGMEN'S   WIVES. 

her  to  be  a  reformer  of  any  kind  ;  but  her  exam- 
ple and  influence  are  most  wholesome  and  encour- 
aging. 

My  next  story  is  of  a  woman  who,  although  a 
good  housekeeper,  has  had  much  to  do  with  the 
life  in  numerous  homes  besides  her  own.  She  is 
the  wife  of  a  mechanic,  an  unusually  intelligent 
and  thoughtful  man.  Their  home  is  in  a  village 
not  far  from  a  large  city,  and  there  are  several 
manufacturing  towns  of  considerable  importance 
in  the  same  region.  I  became  acquainted  with 
these  persons  soon  after  the  close  of  the  civil  war. 
They  are  so  inseparable  in  their  thought  and  work 
that  I  cannot  well  write  of  one  alone.  The  hus- 
band had  entered  the  Union  army  early,  and 
served  to  the  close  of  the  contest,  and  they  both 
felt  that  their  connection  with  the  nation's  strug- 
gle had  been  a  kind  of  religious  experience  to 
them.  This  first  drew  me  to  acquaintance  with 
them.  They  had  a  clear  idea  of  a  principle  of  pa- 
triotism which  should  draw  men  together  in  times 
of  peace,  and  inspire  them  with  a  feeling  of  com- 
radeship and  of  devotion  to  the  interests  of  their 
country.  As  I  was  myself  at  that  time  thinking 
much  of  these  subjects,  and  becoming  more  and 
more  fully  convinced  of  the  importance  of  encour- 
aging and  propagating  such  ideas,  I  soon  became 
greatly  interested  in  the  thought  and  activities  of 
this  workingraan  and  his  wife.  The  man  had 
read  much,  and  was  still  reading,  about  govern- 


WORKINGMElSrS  WIVES.  117 

ment  and  the  organization  of  society,  and  had  a 
considerable  knowledge  of  history.  He  talked  with 
his  wife  about  his  reading,  and  often  read  aloud  the 
most  important  passages.  For  some  time  before  I 
met  him  he  had  been  troubled  by  the  growing 
conviction  that  many  things  in  the  best  writings 
on  political  economy  and  similar  subjects  were  in- 
applicable and  impracticable  in  this  country,  and 
among  the  workingmen  whom  he  knew ;  and  it 
had  just  occurred  to  him  to  inquire  whether  there 
are  perhaps  some  special  or  peculiar  conditions  or 
elements  in  the  circumstances  and  character  of  so- 
ciety in  this  country  which  have  not  yet  been  suf- 
ficiently considered  by  our  teachers. 

At  the  period  referred  to,  artisans  were  still 
making  money  in  the  shops  and  factories  of  that 
region,  and  there  was  much  talk  among  them 
about  life  insurance.  We  spent  many  evenings 
together :  my  friend  reported  the  discussions  which 
had  occurred  at  the  shops  during  the  dinner  hour, 
and  read  from  various  books  passages  bearing  upon 
the  subject;  his  wife  told  of  what  the  women 
were  saying,  and  expressed  her  own  judgment  in 
relation  to  the  matters  we  were  considering.  While 
her  husband  had  been  in  the  army  she  had  had 
much  intercourse  with  the  families  of  working- 
men  in  the  village,  and  since  his  return  they  had 
worked  together  for  the  advancement  and  eleva- 
tion of  the  class  to  which  they  belonged.  They 
both  thought  there  were  serious  objections  to  life 
insurance,  though  it  might  yet  be  the  best  thing 


118  WORKINGMEN'S  WIVES. 

available,  as  a  method  of  saving,  for  many  work- 
ing people. 

"  Something  of  the  kind  is  necessary,"  said  the 
wife,  "  because  the  men  cannot  keep  money.  As 
soon  as  they  have  a  small  sum  they  either  wish  to 
buy  something  with  it,  or  to  invest  it  in  a  way 
that  will  bring  them  more.  Most  women  can  keep 
money  much  better  than  men  can.  It  pleases 
them  to  go  on  adding  to  the  little  stock  they  have 
hoarded  up,  and  to  look  at  it  now  and  then  ;  but 
when  a  man  has  a  few  dollars,  he  is  apt  to  be  rest- 
less and  unhappy  till  he  has  expended  it." 

"  But  this  is  a  costly  way  of  saving,"  observed 
her  husband.  "  I  have  been  at  the  principal  of- 
fices in  the  city.  Two  of  the  companies  are  put- 
ting up  showy  and  expensive  buildings.  Their 
officers  'have  good  salaries,  and  the  commissions 
allowed  to  agents  are  large.  Of  course  all  these 
things  are  paid  for  by  the  people  who  are  insured. 
The  men  who  are  building  up  and  managing  this 
great  business  of  life  insurance  are  doing  it  for  the 
profit  it  will  bring  to  them,  of  course.  That  is 
all  right,  but  it  will  be  far  more  profitable  to  them 
than  to  the  working  people." 

"  The  women  are  inclined  to  like  savings-banks 
better,"  said  his  wife ;  "  they  think  the  money 
would  not  be  so  entirely  out  of  their  reach." 

"  They  are  partly  right,"  the  husband  replied, 
"but  we  are  coming  to  have  too  many  savings- 
banks  and  life  insurance  companies  too.  The  de- 
positor in  the  savings-banks  have  no  real  security 


WORKINGMEtrS  WIVES.  119 

for  the  safety  of  their  money  except  the  honor  and 
foresight  of  the  bank  officers.  It  is  always  possi- 
ble in  a  time  like  this  that  the  value  of  real  estate 
securities  may  decline  so  much  as  to  fall  below  the 
amount  for  which  they  are  pledged.  It  is  not 
likely  that  prices  will  always  keep  up." 

"  I  am  sure,"  said  the  wife,  "  that  men  are  buy- 
ing too  many  things ;  they  make  too  many  im- 
provements ;  and  these  things  eat  up  the  profits, 
it  seems  to  me,  of  all  kinds  of  business  about  here. 
If  I  should  buy  so  much  improved  machinery  for 
housekeeping,  we  should  soon  be  in  debt  instead 
of  saving  anything,  and  that  appears  to  be  just 
what  the  men  are  doing.  And  if  so  many  people 
go  to  making  shoes  and  silks  and  steel  rails,  it  will 
bring  the  prices  down  so  that  there  will  be  no 
profit.  Besides,  I  should  think  we  would  have 
more  of  these  things  by  and  by  than  anybody  will 
want,  or  can  afford  to  buy.  I  cannot  see  that 
many  people,  either  workingmen  or  others,  are 
really  saving  anything  except  as  they  insure  their 
lives  or  deposit  something  in  savings-banks.  So 
I  suppose  these  plans  for  saving  will  really  benefit 
people." 

"  No  doubt  they  will  do  good  in  some  ways," 
was  the  reply,  "  but  much  of  the  money  so  in- 
vested will  probably  never  come  back  to  those 
who  earned  it." 

"  Then  there  is  something  very  wrong  about  it," 
answered  the  wife,  "  for  the  certainty  of  having 
what  they  save  is  more  important  for  the  working 


120  WORKINGMElSrS   WIVES. 

people  than  anything  else. connected  with  money. 
I  have  thought  a  great  deal  about  this  matter  of 
interest  for  money  as  it  affects  our  people.  No 
doubt  it  is  necessary  and  right  for  rich  men,  who 
loan  large  sums,  and  in  the  great  affairs  of  the 
business  world.  But  for  working  people  it  does 
harm,  and  not  good.  Many  of  our  class  are  ex- 
cited and  dazzled  by  the  thought  of  their  money 
increasing,  and,  as  they  say,  '  piling  up  while  we 
are  asleep,'  so  that  they  often  risk  losing  the  whole 
of  it  by  lending  it  to  men  who  are  not  to  be 
trusted,  or  venturing  into  wild  speculations.  I 
suppose  some  of  these  things  are  too  deep  for  me, 
but  I  am  sure  the  effect  of  interest  for  money  is, 
for  many  of  the  working  people,  very  much  like 
the  influence  of  gambling.  It  gives  them  unrea- 
sonable hopes  for  the  future,  and  leads  them  to 
desire  above  all  things  to  escape  from  the  neces- 
sity of  work ;  and,  as  I  said,  they  often  lose 
their  money  by  it." 

"  Do  you  not  think  the  ambition  to  rise  above 
the  condition  of  working  people  a  good  feeling, 
and  one  to  be  encouraged  ?"  I  asked. 

"No,"  said  she,  "I  do  not.  If  we  are  all  to 
rise  above  the  condition  of  working  people,  who 
will  be  left  to  do  the  world's  work  ?  Everybody 
seems  to  think  it  would  be  very  fine,  but  I  can  see 
that  such  notions  are  doing  mischief.  Is  it  really 
degrading  to  work  ?  It  sounds  well  to  talk  about 
our  fitting  ourselves  for  something  better.  There 
must  be  some  deception  in  what  our  teachers  are 


WORKINGMEISrS   WIVES.  121 

saying  about  these  things.  If  we  could  be  wise 
enough  and  unselfish  enough  to  do  our  jjart  in 
every  way  as  working  people  should,  I  think  we 
should  be  more  useful  in  the  world,  and  much 
happier  than  we  can  be  by  trying  to  rise  to  posi- 
tions which  are  not  suited  to  us.  Five  or  six  of 
the  men  at  the  shops  have  bought  pianos  within  a 
year  or  two.  A  political  speaker  from  the  city 
spoke  of  this  al  the  town  hall,  a  few  weeks  ago, 
as  an  evidence  of  the  superiority  of  American 
workingraen  and  their  opportunities,  and  said 
that  laborers  in  other  countries  cannot  have  such 
things.  That  is  true,  I  suppose,  but  I  think  if 
our  men  had  been  wise  they  might  have  found 
better  uses  for  their  money.  You  can  hear  one  of 
the  instruments  now.  Our  neighbor's  daughter  is 
taking  lessons.  Her  teacher  tells  her  it  is  a  great 
pity  she  could  not  have  begun  sooner,  because  the 
work  she  has  done  has  spoiled  her  hands  for  the 
piano.  Her  mother  does  all  the  hard  work  now, 
and  her  daughter  dresses  in  style  and  takes  care 
of  her  hands.  It  is  not  at  all  likely  that  her  play- 
ing will  ever  be  the  means  of  real  cultivation  to 
herself  or  of  pleasure  to  others.  A  year  or  two 
ago  she  was  an  earnest,  industrious  girl,  affection- 
ate and  happy  ;  now  she  is  affected,  discontented, 
and  disagreeable.  She  wants  many  things  which 
she  cannot  possibly  have,  and  has  no  idea  of  being 
serviceable  to  anybody.  Such  changes  are  going 
on  among  nearly  all  the  working  people  that  we 
know,  and  if  there 's  a  great  deal  of  good  in  them, 
there 's  some  harm  too." 


122  WORKINGMEN'S   WIVES. 

"  Well,  wife,"  said  her  husband,  "  tell  us,  since 
you  are  in  the  way  of  it,  what  you  think  the 
working  people  ought  to  aim  at,  and  what  they 
most  need." 

"  We  ought  to  do  our  work  well  and  faithfully, 
so  as  to  be  really  of  service  to  our  employers  and 
to  the  country.  We  need  to  feel  more  interest  in 
one  another  as  a  class,  without  any  enmity  toward 
other  people,  and  to  help  and  encourage  one  an- 
other to  gain  more  of  such  kinds  of  knowledge  as 
will  be  of  use  to  us  in  our  circumstances  and  way 
of  living.  The  knowledge  that  makes  the  work- 
ing people  dissatisfied  with  their  lot  is  no  blessing, 
and  it  is  not  a  kindness  to  give  it  to  them.  We 
need  somebody  to  tell  us  and  teach  us  what  would 
be  most  useful  to  us.  But  I  can  see  that  the 
women  need  to  know  how  to  cook  a  great  deal 
better  than  they  do  now,  and  how  to  keep  their 
houses  and  things  about  them  in  a  wholesome  con- 
dition, so  as  not  to  invite  disease  into  their  fami- 
lies. They  need  to  feel  more  responsibility  for 
their  children  every  way.  And  then  —  I  must 
come  back  to  that  —  the  working  people  need 
some  way  of  saving  money  that  will  be  absolutely 
safe,  so  that  they  can  be  perfectly  certain  of  hav- 
ing it  when  they  want  it.  Whenever  men  have 
steady  work,  even  at  moderate  wages,  they  can 
save  something,  and  they  ought  to  lay  by  a  little 
at  a  time,  till  each  family  has  two,  three,  or  four 
hundred  dollars,  as  a  provision  against  sickness 
or  possible  lack  of  employment;  or  has  a  little 


WORKINGMEN'S   WIVES.  123 

sum  for  each  of  the  children  as  they  grow  up  and 
begin  life  for  themselves,  and  perhaps  some  small 
provision  for  the  old  age  of  the  parents.  To  use 
all  our  earnings  as  we  go  along  has  an  unfavorable 
and  demoralizing  effect.  To  bind  ourselves  by  a 
resolution  to  save  a  small  part  of  each  week's  in- 
come is  a  useful  discipline,  —  one  that  we  all  re- 
quire. It  teaches  us  to  be  able  to  do  without 
some  things  that  we  could  have,  and  that  is  a  kind 
of  education  that  would  be  good  for  everybody. 
But  the  uncertainty  about  receiving  their  money 
does  more  than  anything  else  to  discourage  the 
working  people  from  trying  to  save.  I  have 
thought  a  great  deal  about  this,  and  it  seems  to 
me  a  very  important  matter,  and  one  that  the  wise 
men  of  the  nation  might  well  think  about.  I  do 
not  know  anything  about  the  science  of  govern- 
ment, but  there  must  be  something  very  imper- 
fect in  our  civilization,  or  the  organization  of  so- 
ciety, when  all  the  wisdom  of  this  great  country 
and  all  the  power  of  the  government  cannot  give 
a  laboring  man  who  saves  fifty  dollars  any  secu- 
rity that  he  shall  have  it  returned  to  him  when  he 
needs  it.  I  have  sometimes  seen  such  mischief 
and  suffering  result  from  this  state  of  things  that 
I  could  not  sleep,  and  I  have  spent  many  hours  in 
trying  to  think  out  some  plan  for  changing  it. 
Whenever  money  that  is  loaned  or  put  in  a  sav- 
ings-bank is  lost,  it  makes  workingmen  reckless 
and  improvident." 

"  Tell  our  friend  about   your  plan,"    said  her 


124  WORKINGMEN'S   WIVES. 

husband,  "  and  perhaps  he  will  say  what  he 
thinks  of  it." 

"  My  plan  seems  to  me  a  very  simple  one.  It 
is  for  the  national  government  to  receive  money 
from  the  people  at  the  post-offices  everywhere,  and 
give  them  certificates  of  deposit,  charging  a  small 
fee  to  pay  for  the  clerical  labor  involved.  The 
important  thing,  as  I  look  at  it,  is  that  the  gov- 
ernment is  not  to  pay  interest  on  these  deposits. 
Even  if  only  two  or  three  per  cent.,  or  only  one 
per  cent.,  were  proposed,  there  would  be  serious 
objections  to  such  a  system ;  but  I  cannot  see  how 
this  plan  could  do  any  harm,  or  why  there  should 
be  any  great  difficulty  in  putting  it  into  practical 
operation." 

"  The  present  organization  and  character  of  life 
insurance  and  savings-bank  business,"  remarked 
the  husband,  "  tends  to  produce  everywhere  an 
increasing  feebleness  of  community ;  and  any- 
thing that  does  that  works  an  injury  for  which 
nothing  can  be  sufficient  compensation.  Every 
life  insurance  company  and  savings-bank  is  a  part- 
nership made  up  of  the  men  who  establish  the 
business  and  of  all  who  invest  money  in  it, —  that 
is,  the  depositors  and  those  who  are  insured.  The 
thousands  of  men  whose  earnings  furnish  so  large 
a  proportion  of  the  capital  have  no  voice  or  power 
in  the  management  or  direction  of  the  business. 
But  what  is  much  worse  than  this,  the  partners 
are  not  acquainted  with  each  other.  The  mana- 
gers do  not  live  in  the  same  community  with  their 


WORKINGMElSrS  WIVES.  125 

partners  in  the  business,  and  they  possess  none  of 
those  common  interests  and  responsibilities  which 
proximity  naturally  tends  to  establish.  In  any- 
thing so  important  in  its  effects  upon  character 
and  the  chief  interests  of  society,  each  community, 
village,  or  neighborhood  should,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
organize  and  direct  its  own  business.  If  I  lend 
money  to  my  neighbor,  he  is  more  apt  to  conduct 
his  business  carefully,  and  to  repay  me  honestly, 
because  he  is  my  neighbor.  When  the  working 
people  have  put  their  money  into  the  hands  of 
men  in  the  city  whom  they  have  never  seen,  they 
may  feel  more  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  city 
people  ;  yet  this  is  a  barren  kind  of  interest,  as 
there  can  be  no  personal  relations  between  them  ; 
but  the  working  people  will  feel  less  interest  in 
their  own  town  and  in  the  wfelfare  of  their  fel- 
low-citizens and  neighbors  here.  I  think  our 
money,  our  business,  our  interests,  should,  as  far 
as  possible,  all  be  here,  where  we  live,  and  that 
we  should  all  be  concerned  and  responsible  for  the 
welfare  of  all  the  members  of  the  community.  If 
we  have  savings-banks  or  life  insurfince,  the  entire 
business  should  be  here,  all  the  officers  our  own 
citizens,  and  no  money  should  be  di-awn  from  the 
people  of  other  places.  There  should  be  no  ex- 
pensive buildings,  and  as  little  as  possible  of  the 
element  of  speculation  in  the  business,  but  the 
greatest  possible  degree  of  certainty  in  the  pres- 
ervation of  the  funds.  But  the  life  insurance 
which  I  think  most  important  is  that  which  con- 


126  WORKINGMElSrS  WIVES. 

sists  in  the  strength  of  community  among  the  peo- 
ple of  each  vilhige  or  small  town  ;  in  their  neigh- 
borly good-will,  interest,  and  practical  kindness 
for  each  other ;  in  their  cooperation  in  what  we 
may  call  the  moral  control  and  administration  of 
the  community  ;  in  the  education,  protection,  and 
guidance  of  all  its  members ;  in  the  repression  of 
license,  of  ignorance,  idleness,  and  all  other  vices 
which  seriously  threaten  social  or  public  interest." 
I  have  not  room  for  any  further  report  of  these 
conversations.  My  friends  still  live  in  the  same 
■village.  Visiting  them  early  last  summer,  I  found 
that  most  of  these  opinions  had  been  confirmed  by 
observation  and  experience  of  the  effect  of  trial 
and  hardship  upon  the  working  people.  This 
man  always  advised  his  neighbors  against  trades- 
unions  and  secret  societies  of  every  kind,  but 
urged  them  to  have  places  of  meeting  where  any- 
body might  come  and  talk.  Such  open  clubs  have 
from  time  to  time  been  sustained  by  the  working- 
men  there,  and  have  been  useful.  When  the  gen- 
eral prostration  of  business  and  industry  reached 
the  place,  my  friend  had  saved  nearly  a  thousand 
dollars,  but  had  not  insured  his  life,  or  put  his 
money  into  a  bank.  He  had  loaned  it  without 
interest  in  sums  of  one  or  two  hundred  dollars  to 
business  men  who  were  his  neighbors.  It  was  all 
repaid  him  ;  but  he  told  me  that  a  man  who  had 
about  two  hundred  dollars  of  his  money  came  to 
his  house  one  evening,  and  said,  "  Here  is  your 
money.     I  cannot  go  on  much  longer,  and  there 


WORKING  MEN'S   WIVES.  127 

will  not  be  much  for  anybody,  I  fear.  This  is  a 
personal  matter,  and  I  cannot  have  you  lose  any- 
thing." At  one  time  all  the  laborers  in  the  shops 
and  mills  were  discharged,  and  a  few  months'  idle- 
ness reduced  some  of  them  to  great  straits.  My 
friend  then  began  lending  small  sums,  without  in- 
terest, to  the  most  needy  workmen,  —  from  two 
to  twenty-five  dollars  to  each.  He  says  most  of 
the  money  has  been  repaid,  and  loaned  again  so 
often  that  the  aggregate  is  more  than  four  thou- 
sand dollars.  He  has  lost  about  one  third  of  his 
money,  as  he  supposes,  finally.  Some  of  the  men 
who  had  it  have  gone  away,  and  he  has  lost  sight 
of  them,  and  a  few  have  died.  "  But,"  he  says, 
*'  the  good  and  help  of  it  all  were  so  great  that  I 
do  not  regret  a  dollar  of  it."  He  still  thinks  this 
the  best  kind  of  life  insurance.  His  wife  has 
taught  the  women  how  to  make  old  clothing  over 
again  to  the  best  advantage,  how  to  cook  beef- 
bones  so  as  to  obtain  much  food  from  what  they 
had  before  thrown  away  (by  long  boiling  to  ex- 
tract all  the  nutritious  elements),  to  utilize  scraps 
and  remnants  of  all  kinds,  and  to  avoid  dangers 
to  health  from  foul  cellars  and  bad  drainage.  The 
two  have  influenced  in  a  notable  degree  the  life 
of  the  village.  This  report  of  our  conversations  is 
from  notes  made  at  the  time  many  years  ago.  I 
then  preserved  these  records  of  the  talk  of  a 
workingman  and  his  wife,  because  I  thought  they 
contained  some  germs,  at  least,  of  genuine  Ameri- 
can thought.    The  man  was  bom  in  Vermont,  and 


128  WORKINGMEN'S   WIVES. 

the  woman  in  Massachusetts.  The  families  of 
both  have  been  in  this  country  more  than  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years,  and  have  always  been  work- 
ing people,  and,  as  my  friends  say,  "  none  of  them 
were  ever  '  in  better  circumstances ; '  they  all  had 
to  work  for  their  living,  so  their  descendants  have 
not  had  to  '  come  down  in  the  world.'  " 

I  have  for  many  years  enjoyed  acquaintance 
with  a  woman  whose  home  overlooks  the  great 
prairies  of  Southeastern  Kansas.  Twenty-five 
or  thirty  years  ago,  as  she  has  told  me,  it  was 
common,  where  she  grew  up,  for  girls  engaged  to 
be  married  to  go  out  to  service  and  earn  money 
for  the  purchase  of  their  housekeeping  outfit.  She 
was  in  her  sixteenth  year  when  she  left  home  for 
this  purpose.  Her  girlhood  had  been  happy  and 
busy.  Her  parents  lived  on  a  small  farm.  There 
were  many  daughter's,  and  they  learned  to  love 
the  freedom  of  out-door  work  in  haying  and  corn- 
planting  time.  Idleness  and  piano-playing  and  the 
modern  styles  of  dress  had  not  then  become  fash- 
ionable among  young  women  in  that  region.  An 
earnest,  practical  spirit  ruled  the  somewhat  prim- 
itive society,  and  the  better  class  of  young  people 
had  a  real  thirst  for  knowledge  and  improvement. 
The  few  books  and  newspapers  were  passed  from 
hand  to  hand,  and  read  in  almost  every  house  of 
the  neighborhood.  My  friend  says  there  is  much 
more  reading  among  the  young  people  now,  but 
the  books  read  are  not,  where  she  is  acquainted, 


WORKINGMEN'S    WIVES.  129 

equal  in  character  to  those  with  which  she  was 
familiar  in  her  girlhood.  They  are  less  thought- 
ful, and  require  less  mental  exertion  on  the  part 
of  the  reader. 

She  was  married  at  seventeen,  and  soon  after- 
wards set  out  on  the  westward  journey  of  a  thou- 
sand miles  to  the  region  in  which  she  was  to  find, 
or  rather  make,  her  home.  The  young  couple  had 
money  to  purchase  enough  wild  prairie  land  for  a 
farm,  and  to  supply  the  means  of  living  till  they 
could  raise  the  first  crop  of  corn,  but  not  much 
more.  The  grassy  plains  stretching  away  to  the 
horizon  on  every  side  showed  few  human  habita- 
tions. There  were  at  first  about  a  dozen  houses 
within  as  many  miles,  and  within  that  distance  all 
were  neighbors.  But  there  were  new  arrivals 
every  year,  and  life  soon  became  less  lonely,  or  at 
least  less  solitary,  for  the  young  wife,  who  battled 
bravely  against  home-sickness,  and  threw  herself 
with  energy  into  all  the  activities  of  her  new  spliere 
oT  action.  The  settlers  in  the  neighborhood  rep- 
1  esented  nearly  all  parts  of  the  country,  except  the 
Pacific  coast.  There  were  families  from  New  Eng- 
land and  the  Middle  and  Southern  Atlantic  States, 
and  from  the  different  regions  of  the  great  Missis- 
sippi Valley,  north  and  south.  One  of  the  first 
things  in  the  new  life  which  impressed  this  young 
woman  was  the  fact  that  the  moral  differences  be- 
tween the  life  around  her  and  that  to  which  she 
had  been  accustomed  all  seemed  to  have  been  pro- 
duced by  a  lowering  of  the  old  standards.     Men 


130  WORKINGMEJSrS   WIVES. 

who  used  profane  language  acknowledged  that 
they  had  not  done  so  in  their  old  homes ;  some 
who  had  brought  letters  of  fellowship  from  East- 
ern churches  went  hunting  on  Sundays.  Nearly 
everybody  made  and  received  visits  on  that  day, 
and  it  was  a  jolly,  social  holiday.  The  new  citi- 
zens and  neighbors  were  good  men  and  women  ; 
there  were  few  coarse  or  vicious  persons  among 
them,  but  there  was  a  strong  and  general  tendency 
to  revert  to  a  much  lower  type  of  civilization  than 
any  of  them  had  been  acquainted  with  in  the  older 
portions  of  the  country.  This  facility  in  adopting 
lower  standards,  so  manifest  all  about  her,  caused 
the  young  woman  many  an  hour  of  anxious,  pain- 
ful thought.  It  was  by  no  means  easy  to  deter- 
mine what  would  be  right  or  wise  for  herself  un- 
der the  new  conditions  of  her  life.  Here  was  a 
modest,  quiet  girl,  with  no  one  to  advise  her,  with 
no  one  at  first  even  to  understand  her,  who  saw 
that  society  was  in  process  of  formation  around 
her,  and  felt  that  some  very  important  elements 
and  influences  were  wanting,  the  lack  of  which 
she  was  sure  would  be  felt  more  and  more  as  an 
evil  and  injury  as  inclination  hardened  into  habit, 
and  tendencies  became  fixed  in  custom.  Her  in- 
terest was  the  greater  because  her  husband  ap- 
peared not  at  all  disposed  to  resist  the  influences 
which  excited  her  distrust.  He  grew  fond  of  rang- 
ing over  the  prairies  with  his  gun,  and  steady 
work  on  the  farm  seemed  to  affect  his  health  un- 
favorably.   When  several  men  worked  together  he 


WORKINGMEN'S    WIVES.  131 

"was  willing  to  share  in  the  labor  for  the  sake  of 
companionship,  but  solitary  employment  grew  more 
and  more  distasteful  to  him.  This  often  led  to  ex-* 
changes  of  work  and  other  plans  for  enjoying  the 
society  of  some  of  his  neighbors,  who,  like  himself, 
liked  conversation  so  much  that  work  seemed  an 
interruption  and  an  impertinence.  His  farm  and 
dwelling  soon  showed  signs  of  neglect  and  ineffi- 
ciency, and  it  was  not  long  till  he  had  contracted 
debts  which  the  surplus  productions  of  the  farm 
were  not  sufficient  to  pay. 

After  long  and  painful  resistance  to  a  conviction 
which  seemed  a  kind  of  disloyalty  to  her  husband, 
the  young  wife  was  compelled  to  recognize  the 
fact  that  the  wisdom,  energy,  and  responsibility 
properly  belonging  to  the  head  of  a  family  were 
required  of  her,  and  that  unless  her  resources 
proved  equal  to  the  unexpected  demand,  her  home 
life  was  likely  to  prove  a  failure,  a  life-long  disap- 
pointment and  misery.  There  was  a  period  of 
wild  and  lonely  bitterness,  and  then  she  quietly 
accepted  her  lot,  and  resolutely  entered  upon  her 
work  of  building  the  temple  of  home  upon  better 
foundations,  and  of  trying  to  cultivate  and  encour- 
age as  much  as  possible  all  the  higher  elements 
and  aptitudes  of  her  husband's  character.  She 
wished,  as  I  suppose  most  women  do,  to  look  up 
to  her  husband  ;  to  feel  that  he  was  her  head  ;  to 
respect  his  superior  strength  and  authority.  But 
she  set  forward  to  make  the  best  of  everything, 
and  soon  developed  a  kind  of  happiness  in  cour- 


132  WORKINGMEN'S    WIVES. 

ageous  effort  and  endurance.  She  had  much  to 
endure.  More  than  once  the  homestead  itself  has 
been  imperiled  by  bad  management.  But  the 
business  men  of  the  region  gradually  recognized 
the  fact  that  when  debts  were  paid  it  was  by  the 
wife's  economy  and  energy,  and  the  danger  from 
the  husband's  injudicious  investments  and  engage- 
ments lessened  as  the  years  passed.  While  she 
was  thus  endeavoring  to  do  her  part  faithfully  at 
home,  her  interest  in  the  life  around  her  grew 
more  profound  and  serious.  She  told  her  husband 
of  her  feelings  and  desires  regarding  the  intellect- 
ual and  moral  condition  and  needs  of  their  neigh- 
borhood, and  asked  his  counsel  as  to  her  own 
course.  He  thought  that  any  effort  to  influence 
their  neighbors  would  probably  be  resented  by 
them  as  an  oflScious  and  unfriendly  interference, 
and,  while  deploring  the  want  of  moral  and  relig- 
ious teaching  in  the  region  about  them,  was  of 
the  opinion  that  people  should  be  left  to  the  teach- 
ing of  experience.  "  If  they  do  wrong  and  get  into 
trouble,  they  will  learn  to  do  better  next  time." 
Still  he  did  not  more  decidedly  oppose  her  wishes, 
and  she  felt  that  the  way  was  clear  for  her  doing 
what  she  could.  But  what  should  she  attempt  ? 
Although  herself  earnestly  religious,  she  thought 
it  not  wise  to  undertake  teaching  religion  directly 
or  specifically.  What  she  did  may  appear  rather 
shocking  to  many  good  people,  but  I  can  only  re- 
port the  truth.  The  time  was  approaching  for  a 
great  Sunday  visit  at  her  house.     It  was  her  turn 


WORKINGMEN'S   WIVES.  133 

to  entertain  her  neighbors.  Some  fifteen  or 
twenty  persons,  old  and  young,  would  dine  with 
her,  and  spend  the  afternoon  in  conversation  and 
such  amusements  as  they  were  accustomed  to  en- 
joy or  might  improvise  for  the  occasion.  The  aim- 
less and  thoughtless  character  of  the  talk  in  these 
social  meetings  had  given  my  friend  much  discom- 
fort. It  had  no  direction  or  purpose,  but  depended 
upon  mere  impulse  and  accident  in  its  selection  of 
subjects.  Its  tone  was  often  rather  low,  and  there 
was  never,  as  she  said,  anything  profitable.  If, 
as  often  happened,  a  young  person  made  a  serious 
or  thoughtful  remark,  some  older  member  of  the 
circle  would  make  it  the  point  of  a  joke  or  repar- 
tee. This  young  woman's  beginning,  that  Sunday 
afternoon,  for  the  regeneration  of  society,  was  a 
series  of  tableaux  vivants.,  based  on  the  pictures  in 
a  copy  of  Shakespeare's  plays.  Everybody  was 
delighted,  and  there  was  an  unexpected  and  most 
gratifying  desire  to  know  what  it  was  all  about, 
—  who  the  soldiers  and  ladies  were  who  had  been 
represented,  and  what  they  had  done.  "  TeU 
us  about  them,"  said  the  young  people.  Her 
strength  was  failing.  The  battle  had  been  fought, 
and  she  had  gained  the  victory.  She  could  not 
tell  stories  now.  Years  afterward  she  told  me  of 
her  gratitude  to  a  gentleman  present,  a  physician 
who,  profoundly  touched  by  the  change  which  he 
felt  had  passed  upon  their  association,  said  ear- 
nestly, "  Not  now ;  we  have  had  enough  for  to-day. 
I  have  the  books,  —  Shakespeare  and  the  English 


134  WORKINGMEN'S    WIVES. 

histories,  that  tell  about  it  all.  If  any  of  you 
will  stop  at  my  house,  my  wife  will  show  them  to 
you.  It  is  time  for  us  to  go  now."  And  with  a 
respectful  dignity  of  manner  which  awed  his  neigh- 
bors he  advanced  to  the  centre  of  the  room  and 
took  leave  of  his  hostess.  Everybody  followed  his 
example. 

The  next  day  the  doctor  rode  a  few  miles  out 
of  his  course  across  the  prairie,  to  call  on  this  new 
acquaintance.  They  had  a  long  conversation,  and 
she  told  him  of  her  feelings  regarding  the  com- 
munity, —  of  her  fervent  wish  for  the  beginning 
of  a  better  order  of  things.  "  Well,"  said  the  doc- 
tor, "  we  have  had  the  beginning.  We  will  meet 
at  my  house  next  time.  Come  over,  you  and 
your  husband,  on  Saturday  afternoon,  and  we  will 
make  our  plans  for  the  entertainment."  He  was 
always  afterward  her  faithful  ally.  It  proved,  as 
he  said,  that  a  beginning  had  been  made. 

The  Sunday  visits  grew  into  meetings  for  read, 
ing,  music,  and  conversation.  From  the  first  the 
mirth  was  less  boisterous  and  the  talk  more 
thoughtful,  but  there  was  no  loss  of  real  freedom 
or  geniality.  I  have  always  wondered  most  that 
my  friend  did  not  try  to  do  too  much.  But  the 
hour  had  come,  and  the  woman.  And  she  could 
not  only  do  what  the  occasion  required  of  her ; 
what  was  quite  as  necessary  to  her  success,  she 
knew  how  to  choose  her  marshals.  People  seemed 
to  develop  new  capabilities  under  her  influence. 
Her  home  life  was  always  trying  in  many  ways. 


WORKINGMEirS   WIVES.  135 

It  was  necessary  to  hire  some  labor  to  assist  in 
bringing  the  land  into  cultivation,  and  in  order 
to  have  means  for  this  she  took  two  or  three 
boarders,  men  from  the  East  working  upon  new 
farms  in  the  vicinity,  who  had  not  brought  their 
families  with  them.  The  people  for  many  miles 
around  came  to  depend  upon  her  superior  judg- 
ment and  readiness  of  resource  as  a  nurse  in  all 
cases  of  severe  illness  of  women  and  children. 
Her  kindly  arms  were  the  first  resting-place  for 
scores  of  little  ones  upon  their  arrival  in  this 
strange,  new  world,  and  she  closed  the  weary 
eyes  of  age  as  the  shadows  deepened  of  "  the 
night  before  the  eternal  morning."  Young  lov- 
ers came  to  her,  sure  of  one  friend  who  would  not 
smile  at  their  perplexities  and  disappointments, 
nor  break  the  kindly  silence  which  guarded  the 
secret  of  their  pains  or  joys.  No  bride's  attire 
could  be  designed  without  her  judgment.  Few 
social  enterprises  were  regarded  as  well  begun 
without  the  sanction  of  some  suggestion  from  her. 
She  had  no  children  of  her  own,  but  two  or 
three  years  after  marriage  she  adopted  two  moth- 
erless little  boys.  One  was  two  years  old,  but 
the  other  had  come  into  life  as  his  mother  passed 
out  of  it.  Never  had  orphaned  babes  a  tenderer 
foster-mother.  As  they  grew  older,  others  like 
them  were  brought,  one  after  another,  to  this  house 
of  refuge.  Some  remained  for  a  short  time,  until 
they  set  their  little  faces  toward  the  land  where 
their   mothers   had   gone   before   them.     Others 


136  WORKlNGMElSrS   WIVES. 

were  nourished  and  guided  until  suitable  homes 
could  be  found  for  them  elsewliere.  When  a  lit- 
tle child  was  left  motherless  by  the  death  of  a 
betrayed  and  forsaken  woman,  the  neighbors  said, 

"  Mrs. will  take  it,"  and  under  her  guidance 

the  child  whosfe  life  was  a  legacy  of  shame  has 
grown  to  be  a  young  man  of  unusual  promise. 

She  has  done  nearly  all  the  work  of  her  house- 
keeping, including  for  many  years  past  a  consider- 
able dairy,  with  sometimes  a  little  assistance  for  a 
few  weeks  when  she  is  threatened  with  complete 
exhaustion  of  her  strength.  Her  health  has  suf- 
fered greatly  from  her  long-continued  over-exer- 
tion. But  her  culture  has  gone  forward,  fed  not 
only  by  her  rich  and  varied  experience  of  life,  but 
also  from  the  best  literature  of  our  time.  She  has 
read  much  ;  I  can  scarcely  say  how  it  has  been 
possible  for  her  to  do  so,  but  when  I  was  for  a 
short  time  at  her  house,  four  years  ago,  I  observed 
that  an  open  book  lay  always  within  her  reach, 
and  that  it  was  often  glanced  at  for  a  minute  or 
two  in  some  pause  of  the  culinary  processes,  or  a 
passage  would  be  read  now  and  then  in  connection 
with  the  conversation.  She  writes  well,  in  easy, 
graphic  narrative,  with  a  clear  and  vital  expres- 
sion of  thought  and  sentiment.  A  few  articles 
from  her  pen  have  been  published  in  Eastern 
newspapers,  and  she  has  written  much  for  the 
papers  of  her  own  county.  Her  experience  would 
be  a  treasure  to  a  writer  of  fiction.  At  the  time 
referred  to  I  was  looking  into  the  geology  and 


WORKINGMEN'S   WIVES.  137 

botany  of  the  State  in  which  she  lives,  driving 
across  the  country,  in  fine  weather,  in  an  open 
carriage.  On  two  or  three  occasions  I  asked  her 
to  accompany  me.  Her  enjoyment  of  the  open 
air,  of  the  dewy  brightness  of  the  morning,  of 
the  sultry  summer  noon  brooding  over  the  wide 
lands,  was  as  fresh  as  that  of  a  child.  But  what 
interested  me  most  was  her  reception  by  the  peo- 
ple. As  we  drove  along  the  roads,  and  sometimes 
crossed  the  great  farms  where  she  knew  the  way, 
the  men  everywhere  dropped  their  work,  or  left 
their  teams  standing,  and  hastened  across  the 
fields  to  greet  her.  They  begged  us  to  stop  at 
their  homes  to  see  their  wives ;  and  where  the 
house  was  near  the  women  were  called  out.  I 
noted  a  repressed  intensity  of  feeling  on  their 
part,  like  that  of  lovers  meeting  in  the  presence 
of  strangers.  She  seemed  to  be  in  complete  sym- 
pathy with  every  one,  and  received  their  affec- 
tionate homage  with  quiet,  frank  delight.  After- 
ward, when  I  met  the  physician,  her  early  friend, 
and  still  her  co-worker  in  various  schemes  for 
popular  culture  and  improvement,  he  told  me  the 
story  of  her  work.  (Every  one  I  saw  had  some- 
thing to  tell  of  her  kindness  or  wisdom.)  He 
thought  it  one  of  the  most  noticeable  features 
of  her  life  and  influence  that  she  inspired  all  the 
men  with  profound  respect  and  admiration,  and 
yet  no  woman  ever  felt  in  the  slightest  degree 
jealous  of  her.  I  dined  with  the  doctor,  and  his 
wife  told  me  the  same  thing.  Said  she,  "  We 
women  all  love  her,  and  the  men  adore  her." 


138  WOBKINGMEN'S   WIVES. 

The  country  is  much  changed  since  she  made 
it  her  home.  The  great  valley  is  populous  now. 
There  are  half  a  dozen  churches  of  different  de- 
nominations within  easy  reach  of  her  dwelling. 
She  has  not  joined  any  of  them,  but  often  attends 
the  meetings  at  two  or  three  of  the  nearest.  The 
ministers  all  visit  her,  and  all  regard  her  as  a  val- 
uable friend  and  assistant  in  their  work.  No  one 
appears  to  have  thought  her  capable  of  sectarian 
feeling.  One  feature  of  the  work  of  the  Sunday 
reading  club  has  been  the  establishment  of  a 
neighborhood  library.  The  plan  of  dining  to- 
gether on  Sundays  was  given  up  after  the  first 
year,  as  involving  too  great  labor  for  the  hostess, 
and  also  because  it  was  felt  that  the  convivial  ele- 
ment and  interest  should  be  subordinated  to  the 
higher  objects  of  the  meetings.  Most  of  the  peo- 
ple now  go  to  church  in  the  morning,  and  a  few 
meet  still  in  the  afternoon  for  reading  and  conver- 
sation. A  recent  letter  says,  "  When  the  Eastern 
war  came  on  we  obtained  a  few  books  and  maps 
(very  cheap  little  things  they  were),  and  thought 
we  would  give  a  week  or  two  to  learning  about  it. 
But  our  studies  grew  like  the  war  itself,  and  we 
were  led  to  the  history  of  the  Turks  and  of  Greece, 
and  kept  on  for  many  months.  We  should  never 
have  known  Curtius's  and  Finlay's  wonderful  his- 
tories if  it  had  not  been  for  this  war.  We  even 
got  into  the  history  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire. 
I  forget  how  it  came  in,  but  we  read  Bryce's  little 
book."    They  gave  a  good  deal  of  time  to  Biblical 


WORKINGMEN'S   WIVES.  139 

studies  a  few  years  ago,  and  did  not  quarrel.  My 
friend  says  that  one  of  the  most  stubborn  evils 
with  which  they  have  had  to  contend  is  the  deluge 
of  worthless  reading  matter  which  has  within  a 
few  years  extended  to  that  region.  She  thinks  it 
would  be  better  for  people  not  to  read  at  all  than 
that  they  should  be  miseducated  by  the  writings 
of  persons  without  culture  or  knowledge. 

As  we  rode  homeward  on  the  last  day  of  my 
visit,  I  asked  her  what  was  still  most  needed  by  the 
people  of  the  valley.  She  said,  "  They  need  dis- 
cipline, the  power  and  habit  of  self-restraint  and 
self- direction  in  nearly  everything,  but  especially 
in  their  use  of  money.  They  are  full  of  life,  and 
love  good  living,  —  love  to  '  have  things.'  They 
might  all  be  rich,  but  they  are  so  impulsive  and 
extravagant  that  most  of  them  are  in  debt,  and 
are  often  pressed  and  harassed  by  their  inability 
to  pay  their  notes  when  they  are  due.  It  is  ab- 
surd that  this  should  be  so  in  a  country  with  such 
resources  as  this  region  possesses.  If  we  only  had 
some  good,  convenient  way  of  taking  the  women's 
money,  whenever  they  have  saved  a  few  dollars, 
and  keeping  it  for  them,  they  would  soon  grow 
more  economical.  As  it  is,  they  always  say,  '  It 
is  my  money,  and  if  I  do  not  buy  something  with 
it  my  husband  will  spend  it  for  something  that 
will  do  me  no  good.'  They  have  little  foresight 
of  possible  future  needs  ;  but  the  worst  difficulty 
is  that  they  cannot  keep  money,  and  have  no  place 
to  put  it  where  it  will  be  safe.     Some  of  the  girls 


140  WORKIN OMEN'S  WIVES. 

who  are  at  work  about  here  leave  their  money 
with  me,  .but  I  wish  there  were  some  officer, 
somebody  appointed  by  the  government,  to  take 
care  of  people's  money,  and  keep  it  safely  for 
them.     Could  it  not  be  so  ?  " 

"  What  have  been  your  greatest  difficulties  and 
discouragements  ?  " 

"  My  own  lack  of  ability  for  the  work  of  life, 
the  want  of  opportunity  for  acquiring  the  culture 
I  need,  and  the  general  disposition  of  people  to  be 
contented  with  low  things." 

Both  the  parents  of  this  woman  are  descendants 
of  families  who  removed  from  Virginia  to  Ohio 
about  the  first  of  this  century  ;  their  ancestors 
were  from  England,  and  came  to  Virginia  in  very 
early  times. 


THE  CAREER  OF  A  CAPITALIST. 

This  story  is  not  a  warning.  It  outlines  the 
life  of  a  man  belonging  to  a  class  against  whom 
there  has  been  much  clamor  in  this  country  during 
the  last  few  years.  He  is  a  capitalist.  Accord- 
ing to  the  teaching  of  the  reformers  he  is  a  non- 
producer,  a  man  who  lives  by  the  labor  of  others, 
and  therefore  an  oppressor  of  those  whose  toil 
has  given  him  his  wealth.  It  is  indeed  true  that 
he  has  never  worked  with  his  own  hands  since 
the  time  when,  in  his  early  boyhood,  he  engaged 
in  catching  fish  for  the  markets  of  his  native  town. 
Pursuing  this  industry  for  a  few  weeks,  he  found 
himself  possessed  of  an  accumulation  of  small  sil- 
ver coins  amounting  to  about  twenty-five  dollars. 
The  money  was  for  some  reason  put  aside,  and 
is  still  preserved  by  his  children.  "  This,"  he 
once  said  to  me,  "  is  the  first  and  last  money  that 
I  ever  earned  by  my  own  manual  labor."  His 
home  is  on  one  of  the  great  peninsulas  of  our  At- 
lantic coast,  at  the  head  of  navigation  on  a  small 
river,  which  permits  the  passage  of  vessels  of  a 
thousand  tons  burden.  He  is  fifty-six  years  old, 
and  still  lives  on  the  spot  where  he  was  born. 
His  early  education  was  inconsiderable  in  extent, 
and  so  unsystematic  that  it  did  not  even  give  him 


142         2'HE   CABEER  OF  A    CAPITALIST. 

an  idea  of  the  methods  by  which  knowledge  might 
be  acquired.  When  he  was  married  he  could  read 
but  very  imperfectly  ;  but  his  young  wife  insisted 
upon  his  taking  a  daily  newspaper,  and  then 
with  affectionate  firmness  required  him  to  read  it 
through  each  evening.  At  first  there  was  much 
that  he  did  not  understand,  but  he  learned  the  art 
of  wise  and  stimulating  inquiry,  and  so  drew  from 
those  about  him  whatever  knowledge  they  pos- 
sessed. This  habit  still  gives  his  conversation  a 
remarkable  interest  and  vitality.  He  appears  to 
have  been  able  to  carry  unanswered  questions  in 
his  mind  for  any  length  of  time,  until  some  new 
soui'ce  of  information  was  revealed. 

He  was  left  an  orphan  when  about  seventeen 
years  of  age,  and  the  next  year  entered  upon  the 
life  of  a  man  of  business.  His  father  had  been  the 
proprietor  of  a  country  store  with  a  trade  of  about 
forty  thousand  dollars  a  year.  After  his  death  two 
of  his  brothers,  who  settled  the  affairs  of  his  es- 
tate, decided  to  continue  the  business,  admitting 
their  nephew,  our  young  friend,  to  a  partnership 
with  them.  He  received  from  the  estate  of  his 
father  about  fifteen  hundred  dollars.  The  affairs 
of  a  country  store  at  that  time  embraced  the  sale 
of  everything  the  people  of  the  region  needed  for 
use,  and  the  purchase  of  everything  they  wished 
to  sell.  There  was  not  yet  any  separation  of  the 
different  lines  or  departments  of  trade,  such  as 
dry  goods,  groceries,  hardware,  clothing,  millinery, 
etc.,  but  articles  belonging  to  all  these  classes,  and 


THE   CAREER  OF  A   CAPITALIST.         143 

many  others,  were  sold  at  the  same  place,  which 
also  afforded  a  market  for  whatever  was  produced 
or  manufactured  in  the  surrounding  country.  The 
store  was  the  great  vital  centre  for  the  life  of  the 
region,  for  the  reception  and  distribution  of  every- 
thing. There  the  farmers  bought  their  plows, 
harness,  shovels,  hoes  and  scythes,  hats  and  shoes 
(most  of  their  clothing  was  manufactured  at  home 
in  those  days),  and  there  they  sold  their  wheat  and 
corn,  bacon,  hay,  and  other  productions  of  their 
farms.  Thither  their  wives  and  daughters  car- 
ried young  fowls,  eggs  and  butter,  and  home-made 
cloth,  and  took  away  in  return  calicoes,  muslin  de 
laines,  bonnets,  ribbons,  combs,  and  needles.  Here 
the  wood-cutters  bought  their  axes ;  the  handles 
were  generally  made  by  somebody  possessing  un- 
common dexterity  in  this  particular  manufacture, 
and  brought  to  the  store  for  sale.  (There  are 
very  few  men  who  can  make  a  good  axe-handle  ; 
not  so  many,  probably,  as  write  poetry  for  the 
magazines.)  The  plans  for  new  undertakings  and 
enterprises  were  generally  discussed  and  arranged 
at  the  store,  and  it  had  important  relations  to  the 
social  life  of  the  people.  There  were  opportuni- 
ties for  a  genuine  and  useful  education  in  such  a 
place,  and  our  young  fi-iend  entered  with  hearty 
interest  upon  his  new  course  of  life. 

He  soon  came  to  have  a  large  share  in  the 
organization,  direction,  and  management  of  the 
business,  and  in  a  few  years  became  its  real  head. 
He  was  always  a  close  observer  of  men,  and  of  the 


144         THE  CAREER  OF  A   CAPITALIST. 

ejffect  upon  them  of  their  circumstances  and  occu- 
pation. He  early  became  con^nnced  that  the  in- 
terests of  a  community  or  country  are  advanced 
by  increasing  the  number  of  employers,  —  of  men 
who  direct  and  pay  for  the  labor  of  others.  He 
observed  that  many  men  lack  capacity  for  the  wise 
direction  and  organization  of  their  own  labor, 
while  they  are  highly  useful  and  successful  when 
working  for  a  competent  employer.  Others  pos- 
sess qualities  of  mind  and  character  which  fit  them 
to  be  leaders  or  masters  of  the  industry  of  others. 
When  our  friend  saw  these  qualities  in  the  men 
around  him,  he  felt  a  strong  desire  that  they 
should  have  means  and  opportunities  for  their  de- 
velopment and  practical  application  in  some  suit- 
able sphere  of  action.  As  his  business  increased 
and  brought  him  facilities  for  extending  it  in  new 
directions,  he  began  to  confer  with  some  of  the 
young  men  of  the  neighborhood  in  regard  to  their 
employment  'and  wages.  Most  of  them  worked 
by  the  day,  at  cutting  and  hauling  wood,  burning 
charcoal,  and  similar  occupations,  but  there  was 
not  yet  in  the  region  any  systematic  industry 
which  afforded  regular  or  profitable  occupation  to 
the  people.  Men  were  often  idle  for  weeks  to- 
gether. The  country  needed  men  to  employ  and 
lead  the  labor  of  their  neighbors. 

So  our  friend  said  one  day  to  a  young  married 
man  who  lived  near  him,  "  You  are  making  shoes, 
I  believe  ?  " 

"Yes,  when  anybody  wants  them,  and  I  can 
get  money  to  buy  stock." 


THE  CAREER  OF  A   CAPITALIST.         145 

"  Why  don't  you  open  a  shop,  and  hire  two  or 
three  hands  ?  There  is  young  so-and-so,  who  is 
doing  nothing.  He  can  whittle  out  anything  with 
a  jack-knife,  and  he  ought  to  have  something  to 
whittle  that  will  be  of  use.  He  would  soon  learn ; 
and  you  could  find  one  or  two  more." 

"  Why,  do  you  think  I  could  get  work  enough  ?  " 

"  Well,  there  are  a  good  many  people  about  here 
that  wear  shoes.  How  much  are  you  making 
now?" 

"  Oh,  perhaps  a  dollar  and  a  half  a  day,  when 
I  have  work." 

"  Well,  there  is  that  little  house  of  mine  on  the 
corner.  You  can  have  that  free  of  rent,  and  I 
will  let  you  have  money  to  buy  stock.  I  will  in- 
sure you  your  dollar  and  a  half  a  day  ;  you  shall 
pay  me  interest  at  the  legal  rate  for  the  money 
you  have  from  me,  and  we  will  divide  the  profits 
equally." 

The  shoe  shop  was  opened,  and  was  successful. 
It  was  enlarged  in  a  year  or  two,  and  for  many 
years  gave  steady  and  .profitable  employment  to  a 
considerable  number  of  men. 

By  arrangements  essentially  similar  our  friend 
formed  partnerships,  during  the  first  twenty-five 
years  of  his  business  life,  with  harness-makers, 
blacksmiths,  wheelwrights,  tinsmiths,  lumbermen, 
lime-burners,  oystermen,  farmers,  and  manufact- 
urers. He  has  had  scores  of  such  partnerships 
with  wood-cutters  and  charcoal  burners.  In  the 
same  way  he  has  supplied  means  for  building  and 
10 


146         THE   CAREER  OF  A    CAPITALIST. 

operating  numerous  flouring  and  saw  mills,  using 
both  steam  and  water  power.  He  has  owned 
farms  and  timber  lands  in  South  Carolina,  Vir- 
ginia, Maryland,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  New 
York,  and  Ohio,  with  stores  in  each  region  to 
supply  his  farmers  and  the  laborers  at  his  mills. 
Thousands  of  men  have  been  employed  in  connec- 
tion with  these  enterprises,  and  hundreds  of  them 
enabled  to  become  in  their  turn  employers  and  or- 
ganizers of  labor.  In  many  instances  men  have 
worked  for  our  friend,  and  with  him,  during  a 
term  longer  than  that  of  an  average  life-time. 
Almost  always  the  relations  of  emplayer  and  la- 
borer, and  of  business  partnership,  have  passed 
into  those  of  personal  friendship  ;  and  when,  as 
has  often  occurred,  men  have  wished  to  leave  him 
to  go  into  business  for  themselves,  he  has  felt  a 
genuine  interest  in  their  undertakings,  and  done 
what  he  could  to  promote  their  success.  Those 
who  have  worked  for  him  longest  say  that  he 
never  employs  a  man  merely  for  what  he  can  get 
out  of  him. 

Many  years  ago  he  took  a  young  carpenter  into 
partnership,  and  engaged  in  ship-building.  The 
oyster  fisheries  along  the  coast  near  him  are  of 
great  excellence,  and  furnish  employment  for 
thousands  of  men  with  their  vessels.  Of  many 
of  these  boats,  constructed  in  his  ship-yard,  our 
friend  retains  a  share  in  the  ownership,  and  this 
relation  with  the  fishermen  has  promoted  stead- 
iness, industry,  and   sobriety  among  them  in  a 


THE  CAREER  OF  A   CAPITALIST.        147 

marked  degree.  The  larger  vessels,  of  from  eight 
hundred  to  a  thousand  tons  burden,  built  under 
his  supervision,  are  known  in  every  sea  for  tlie 
superiority  of  all  the  materials  used  in  their  con- 
struction, and  the  careful  honesty  of  the  work. 
Many  of  these  he  owns  in  part. 

The  first  carts  that  were  ever  taken  across  the 
mountains  from  Acapulco  to  Oaxaca  were  made 
in  our  friend's  shops,  and  sent  out  to  an  acquaint- 
ance who  had  a  building  contract  in  the  latter 
city.  They  were  objects  of  great  interest  to  the 
native  workmen,  who  were  eager  to  be  permitted 
to  use  theiQ  in  transporting  the  stone  and  other 
building  materials  which  they  had  been  carrying. 
A  dozen  mules  were  harnessed,  and  with  some  dif- 
ficulty fastened  to  the  "  new  carriages."  When 
the  first  cart,  drawn  by  a  rather  diminutive  mule, 
was  brought  to  the  place  where  it  was  to  be 
loaded,  the  laborers  swarmed  around  it,  and  piled 
so  much  stone  into  the  rear  of  the  vehicle  that  it 
tipped  over  backward  and  lifted  the  astonished 
mule  into  the  air,  where  it  hung  and  struggled 
until  the  removal  of  the  stone  restored  it  to  its 
normal  position  on  the  ground. 

Some  fifteen  years  ago  our  friend  became  desir- 
ous of  finding  some  means  for  preser\'ing  and 
utilizing  the  enormous  quantities  of  fruit  pro- 
duced in  the  region  in  which  he  lives.  He  erected 
a  large  building  and  put  in  the  necessary  machin- 
ery for  canning  fruit,  and  this  has  ever  since,  dur- 
ing the  season  for  the  business,  afforded  employ- 


148         THE   CAREER  OF  A   CAPITALIST. 

ment  to  about  one  hundred  women  and  more 
than  half  as  many  men.  The  principal  products 
canned  are  peaches  and  tomatoes,  and  of  these 
many  millions  of  pounds  have  been  used,  and  the 
goods  are  known  in  all  the  markets  of  the  world. 
This  is  an  industry  which  produces  and  stimulates 
many  others. 

The  little  straggling  hamlet  in  which  the  young 
man  began  his  business  life  has  become  a  hand- 
some and  important  town,  with  seven  or  eight 
thousand  inhabitants,  most  of  them  operatives 
employed  in  manufacturing  industries,  —  in  the 
production  of  glass,  iron,  cotton  and  woolen  goods, 
shoes,  buttons,  chemicals,  etc.  There  is  probably 
not  one  of  these  industries  which  was  not  in  some 
way  aided  by  our  friend  in  the  earlier  stages  of 
its  growth.  Por  many  years  there  were  but  few 
men  engaged  in  business  of  any  kind  in  the  town 
who  had  not  been  employed  by  him,  or  associated 
with  him  in  such  relations  as  I  have  described. 
The  original  character  of  the  site  of  the  town 
made  the  construction  of  suitable  streets  a  matter 
of  some  difficulty  and  of  a  great  deal  of  labor, 
and  to  this  object  our  friend  has  devoted  much 
time  and  effort.  For  such  work  he  has  never  ac- 
cepted any  compensation,  regarding  all  measures 
for  the  improvement  of  the  place  as  matters  of 
enlightened  self-interest  for  business  men  rather 
than  of  duty. 

The  circumstances  of  most  of  the  population, 
their  employments  and  general  environment,  have 


THE   CAREER  OF  A   CAPITALIST.         149 

been  such  as  favored  the  development  of  habits  of 
intemperance.  Some  of  the  largest  manufactories 
are  closed  for  two  mouths  in  summer,  and  dur- 
ing this  time  the  men  and  boys  are  idle.  They 
have  good  wages  during  the  remainder  of  the  year, 
and  it  is  not  wonderful  that  drinking  and  gam- 
bling should  seem  to  them  only  natural  amuse- 
ments and  diversions  during  this  long  holiday. 
These  industrial  and  social  conditions  have  given 
the  friends  of  order,  sobriety,  and  good  morals 
cause  for  much  anxiety,  and  for  constant  effort  in 
endeavoring  to  counteract  these  unfavorable  ten- 
dencies. The  influence  of  the  various  churches  of 
the  place,  Methodist,  Presbyterian,  and  Roman 
Catholic,  has  been  highly  effective  among  the  op- 
eratives as  a  means  of  moral  restraint  and  guid- 
ance. The  pubhc  schools  of  the  town  have  more 
than  average  excellence,  and  the  place  has  one  of 
the  best  Kindergartens  in  the  country.  (It  is  a 
real  Kindergarten,  and  not  a  travesty  of  Frobel's 
principles.)  There  is  a  valuable  public  library 
with  several  reading-rooms.  Temperance  socie- 
ties of  various  kinds  have  rendered  important  as- 
sistance in  the  mental  and  moral  education  of  the 
workingmen.  For  several  years  past  there  has 
been  but  little  intoxicating  liquor  sold  in  the 
place.  All  these  agencies  for  the  promotion  of 
the  most  important  ends  for  which  society  exists 
have  received  assistance,  encouragement,  and  sym- 
pathy from  our  friend,  and  people  know  before- 
hand that  he  may  be  counted  amongst  the  sup- 


150         THE   CAREER   OF  A    CAPITALIST. 

porters  of  any  measure  likely  to  advance  the  in- 
terests of  the  community. 

He  is  the  most  quiet  and  unobtrusive  of  men ; 
he  never  makes  speeches  or  addresses  public  meet- 
ings, and  in  arranging  matters  of  business  never 
rambles  away  from  the  subject  in  hand  to  irrel- 
evant topics.  I  think  he  does  not  belong  to  any 
church,  but  he  understands  the  value  of  the  church 
in  the  community,  and  has  a  genuine  fraternal  es- 
teem for  all  who  are  laboring  to  overcome  evil  and 
promote  good-will  among  men.  He  is  eminently 
conscientious,  gentle,  and  forbearing,  simply  and 
silently  religious.  In  society  his  manner  is  marked 
by  a  quiet  cordial  dignity.  He  is  eminently  so- 
cial, and  little  children,  strangers,  and  diffident 
people  are  at  ease  with  him  at  once.  He  likes  to 
entertain  his  friends  by  giving  them  the  freedom 
of  his  house,  the  use  of  horses  and  carriages,  and 
other  means  of  diversion,  while  he  joins  them 
from  time  to  time  with  apparently  equal  interest 
in  whatever  his  guests  prefer  as  the  pursuit  of  the 
hour.  If  a  new  game  is  introduced  for  the  chil- 
dren, or  5'oung  people,  he  learns  it  with  them,  and 
engages  in  it  with  a  zest  as  great  as  theirs.  I 
think  no  visitor  at  his  house  ever  left  it  without 
wishing  to  return. 

He  has  a  cultivated  and  interesting  family.  His 
own  experience  of  the  disadvantages  resulting 
from  the  want  of  culture  in  early  life  has  led  him 
to  give  his  children  an  unusually  judicious  and 
practical  education.     His  principal  recreation  con- 


THE  CAREER  OF  A   CAPITALIST.         151 

sists  in  hearing  his  wife  or  daughters  read,  com- 
monly some  of  the  works  of  American  authors  of 
our  own  time.  (His  old  friend,  the  daily  news- 
paper with  which  he  began  his  education,  is  still 
faithfully  read,  as  it  has  been  for  all  the  years 
from  the  first.)  He  enjoys  the  writings  of  our 
principal  Americfin  poets,  likes  biography  and 
travels,  and  has  an  especial  fondness  for  books 
that  describe  clearly  the  character,  resources,  and 
productions  of  different  countries,  with  the  habits 
and  industries  of  the  people,  and  the  particular 
conditions  under  which  society  exists  in  various 
parts  of  the  world.  His  house  is  frequented  by 
intelligent  and  cultivated  men  and  women  from 
different  parts  of  the  country,  and  is  one  of  the 
chief  intellectual  and  social  centres  of  the  region 
where  he  lives.  A  score  or  so  of  his  neighbors 
have  for  some  years  assembled  there  once  a  fort- 
night for  the  purpose  of  reading  Shakespeare's 
plays.  No  one  participates  with  heartier  interest 
than  our  friend  in  the  work  of  this  little  club.  He 
always  wishes  to  know  the  meaning  of  what  is 
read,  and  is  not  satisfied  till  he  has  learned  what- 
ever is  attainable  about  the  historical  personages 
or  occurrences  mentioned  in  the  play. 

He  likes  to  see  the  best  actors  occasionally. 
He  unites,  in  as  great  degree  as  any  man  I  have 
ever  known,  the  wondering,  receptive  spirit  of  a 
child  with  the  critical  analysis  and  judgment  of  a 
mature  and  cultivated  intellect.  He  has  a  genu- 
ine enjoyment  of  good  pictures,  and  prefers  small. 


152         THE   CAREER  OF  A    CAPITALIST. 

quiet  landscapes.  He  is  always  greatly  interested 
in  machinery,  and  readily  understands  its  con- 
struction and  movements.  I  have  met  few  persons 
who  saw  and  comprehended  so  much  as  he  of  the 
exhibition  in  Philadelphia  in  1876.  He  has  great 
delight  in  the  miscroscope  and  its  revelations.  He 
is  very  fond  of  flowers,  and  has  always  been  a 
close  observer  of  the  forms  and  habits  of  plants. 
When  some  friends  were  setting  out  from  his 
house,  a  few  years  ago,  upon  a  botanical  excursion, 
he  joined  them,  and  on  hearing  various  flowers 
and  plants  described  was  able  to  tell  where  they 
grew  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  before,  though 
he  did  not  know  their  names. 

He  appears  to  have  no  eccentricities.  He  never 
uses  profane  language  or  ardent  spirits.  When  he 
was  young,  rum  was  sold  at  every  country  store, 
but  his  father  had  refused  to  keep  it  for  several 
years  before  his  death,  and  our  friejid  never  sold  a 
drop  of  intoxicating  liquor  of  any  kind.  He  was 
an  earnest  anti-slavery  man,  and  ever  since  the 
end  of  the  war  he  has  been  deeply  interested  in 
the  development  and  prosperity  of  the  Southern 
States  of  the  Union.  He  is  cordially  patriotic, 
and  feels  much  interest  in  politics,  but  is  not  a 
partisan,  and  seems  able  to  recognize  true  worth 
and  excellence  in  all  parties  and  classes.  He  has 
always  been  solicitous  for  the  diffusion  of  sound 
and  practical  ideas  among  the  laboring  people, 
having  comprehended  at  an  early  period  the  truth 
that  the  conditions  of   life  and   business  in  this 


THE   CAREER  OF  A   CAPITALIST.  153 

country,  especially  those  connected  with  universal 
suffrage,  involve  some  ditficult  problems,  and  some 
serious  disadvantages  for  those  who  work  for  wages. 
I  have  here  presented  as  many  of  the  principal 
facts  of  this  man's  life  and  work  as  I  am  able  to 
embody  in  a  paper  of  no  greater  length.  A  mas- 
ter of  fiction  could  portray  an  ideal  character,  and 
supply  more  dramatic  incidents.  This  account  is 
merely  true.  It  describes  the  life  of  a  quiet,  hu- 
mane gentleman,  —  one  who  has  been  most  useful 
to  his  fellows,  who  has  aided  in  the  development 
of  whole  regions  of  our  country,  and  who,  I  am 
sure,  never  knowingly  harmed  any  human  being. 
And  yet  this  man,  according  to  the  teaching  of 
those  who  pretend  to  be  the  best  friends  of  the 
laboring  man,  is  an  enemy  to  society,  an  oppressor 
of  the  poor  and  of  all  who  toil.  He  has  a  beauti- 
ful home,  with  pictures,  flowers,  books,  scientific 
collections  and  instruments.  But  it  is  urged  that 
my  friend  has  no  right  to  these  possessions,  that 
they  are  the  evidences  and  proceeds  of  injustice, 
because  he  is  a  capitalist,  because  he  does  not  la- 
bor with  his  hands.  Yet  he  has  provided  and 
directed  remunerative  labor  for  an  army  of  men 
who  had  not  ability  or  opportunity  to  provide 
it  for  themselves.  He  has  trained  hundreds  of 
these  men  till  they  were  able  in  their  turn  to  pro- 
vide work  for  others.  As  I  have  heard  the  abuse 
and  execration  which  unreasoning  partisans  have 
heaped  upon  all  capitalists,  I  have  wished  to  tell 
the  story  of  some  lives  that  I  have  known.     I  am 


154         TEE  CAREER  OF  A   CAPITALIST. 

well  assured  that  wise  teaching  —  the  truth  —  re- 
specting the  relations  between  capital  and  labor, 
or  rather  those  between  capitalists  and  laborers, 
is  still  as  important  and  necessary  as  before  the 
recent  political  defeat  of  some  of  the  disorganiz- 
ing elements  and  tendencies  in  our  society.  We 
shall  be  exposed  to  similar  dangers  and  difficulties 
while  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  whole  people 
retain  the  qualities  of  mind  and  thought  which 
are  the  real  source  of  our  perils.  We  cannot  ex- 
pect speedily  to  suppress  or  root  out  these  evils  ; 
we  can  only  hope  to  maintain  our  ground  against 
them,  and  gradually  to  expel  them  by  wise  vigi- 
lance and  by  unhesitating  acceptance  of  the  re- 
sponsibility of  propagating  knowledge  and  true 
culture. 

My  friend  has  always  clearly  understood  the 
necessity  of  honestly  paying  the  debts  of  the  na- 
tion which  were  incurred  during  the  war,  and  he 
thinks  that  if  our  people  could  have  been  wise 
enough  to  be  strictly  honest  in  matters  of  national 
finance  and  currency,  we  might  have  escaped 
something  of  the  paralysis  of  business  and  indus- 
try from  which  we  have  recently  suffered.  He 
laments  the  madness  of  the  workingmen  in  de- 
manding irredeemable  paper  money,  but  thinks 
that  the  cultivated  people  and  business  men  of  the 
nation  should  understand  that,  if  there  is  great 
disturbance  and  depression  of  industry  in  the 
country,  and  particularly  if  many  people  are  for 
some  time  out  of  employment,  some  such  popular 


THE  CAREER  OF  A   CAPITALIST.         155 

madness  is  almost  certain  to  arise.  He  believes 
there  may  still  be  danger  and  difficulty  before  us 
in  matters  of  national  finance,  on  account  of  the 
clumsy  and  unnecessary  silver  legislation,  and 
fears  that  the  fluctuating  value  of  silver  may  be 
an  embarrassing  element  in  the  problem  of  re- 
sumption of  specie  payments.  I  find  that  most 
of  the  business  men  of  my  acquaintance  distrust 
the  effect  of  a  double  standard  of  value,  and  be- 
lieve the  present  experiment  of  a  bi-metallic  cur- 
rency can  end  only  in  disaster  ;  but  tiiey  fancy 
it  is  inevitable  that  we  shall  try  many  foolish  ex- 
periments, and  that  we  may  as  well  try  this  one 
now.  My  friend  thinks  the  American  people  will 
be  obliged  to  learn  that  the  yard-stick  has  been 
made  for  some  time,  and  its  length  established, 
and  that  for  all  honest  men  it  is  thirty-six  inches 
long ;  that  there  are  one  hundred  cents  in  a  real 
dollar ;  and  that  the  hope  even  of  pecuniary  gain 
from  schemes  of  readjustment,  repudiation,  and 
debasing  the  currency  is  an  illusion.  All  en- 
deavors to  obtain  something  for  nothing  he  regards 
as  stupid  and  foolish  ;  fairness  and  integrity  being 
in  his  estimation  a  kind  of  capital  without  which 
success  in  business  is  impossible.  This  gentleman 
never  engages  in  electioneering,  and  does  not  pur- 
posely influence  those  who  are  in  his  employ ;  but 
the  facts  of  his  life,  such  as  I  have  here  described, 
have  profoundly  impressed  many  of  the  working 
people  about  him,  and  the  intellectual  conditions 
of  the  region  where  he  lives  are  in  consequence 


156        THE  CAREER  OF  A   CAPITALIST. 

comparatively  unfavorable  for  tlie  development  of 
hostility  to  capitalists,  although  the  workingmen 
constitute  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  population. 
It  might  be  instructive  to  compare  this  life  with 
the  course  of  any  one  of  the  politicians  who  de- 
nounce capitalists  with  such  vehement  bitterness. 
I  asked  my  friend  not  long  ago  if  he  had  not  lost 
much  money  by  trusting  dishonest  or  incompetent 
men.  He  replied  that  he  had  had  such  losses, 
adding,  "  But  every  kind  of  business  has  its  risks, 
and  I  should  probably  have  had  greater  losses  if 
I  had  invested  in  stocks  or  mortgages  in  the  usual 
way."  He  said  that  such  a  course  would  have 
given  him  far  less  labor,  care,  and  anxiety  than 
the  one  he  has  followed.  In  times  of  great  de- 
pression he  has  felt  burdened  and  anxious  on  ac- 
count of  the  difficulty  of  providing  labor  for  his 
people ;  and  has  often  kept  them  employed  for  a 
long  time  when  nothing  could  be  sold  for  as  much 
as  it  cost.  He  holds  that  when  laborers  are  idle, 
capital  always  declines  in  value.  He  thinks  the 
first  step  toward  improvement  in  times  of  great 
depression  is  for  workmen  to  live  on  as  little  as 
possible,  and  for  capitalists  to  employ  as  much  la- 
bor as  they  can.  Let  the  laborers  live  savingly, 
and  the  capitalists  be  content  with  small  profits. 


STUDY  OF   A  NEW  ENGLAND   FACTORY 
TOWN. 

The  place  has  about  fifty  thousand  inhabitants. 
It  has  one  great  industrial  occupation,  the  making 
of  cotton  cloth  of  various  kinds.  There  are  more 
than  forty  mills  used  for  this  manufacture,  — 
great  buildings,  some  of  them  hundreds  of  feet 
in  length,  and  six  stories  high  ;  most  of  them  are 
of  granite,  but  a  few  are  of  brick.  They  do  not 
occupy  any  particular  region  in  the  city,  but  are 
found  in  nearly  every  part  of  it,  —  in  the  central 
squares  and  principal  business  streets,  and  even  in 
those  in  which  the  most  substantial  and  elegant 
dwellings  are  situated,  as  well  as  in  the  poorer 
quarters  and  in  the  suburbs. 

I  visited  the  place  recently,  and  saw  something 
of  the  life  of  the  operatives  and  of  other  portions 
of  the  population.  Various  friends  had  offered 
me  letters  of  introduction  to  prominent  citizens 
and  owners  of  the  mills  ;  but  I  have  long  been 
aware  that  when  one  wishes  to  see  things  directly, 
and  for  himself,  introductions  are  not  always  help- 
ful. They  are  apt  to  commit  an  observer  to  cer- 
tain lines  and  methods  of  investigation,  and  they 
necessitate  the  adoption,  at  the  outset,  of  some 
plan  of  operations;   and  this,  whether  it  is  ad- 


158  STUDY  OF  A 

hered  to  or  discarded,"  is  commonly  a  disadvan- 
tage. A  man  who  is  capable  of  making  valuable 
observations  of  the  life  around  him  can  usually 
obtain  access  to  all  those  persons  who  possess 
knowledge  or  information  which  is  essential  to  his 
objects ;  and  he  can  do  this  most  successfully  by 
making  his  plans  as  he  goes  on,  —  that  is,  by  leav- 
ing himself  free  to  adapt  his  methods,  at  every 
step,  to  circumstances  and  conditions  which  could 
not  possibly  be  foreseen. 

I  employed  one  day  in  leisurely  sauntering 
abont  the  city,  in  the  course  of  which  I  saw 
nearly  all  its  streets  and  by-ways,  its  nooks  and 
out-of-the-way  corners.  During  the  day  the  noise 
of  the  machinery  of  the  mills  fills  the  air  of  the 
whole  city  with  a  muffled  humming  sound,  which 
is  not  unmusical,  but  rather  soft  and  dreamy  ;  in- 
side of  the  mills  the  shrill  buzz  and  clatter  are 
at  first  rather  painful  to  unaccustomed  ears.  In 
the  evening  I  saw  the  mill  people  on  their  way 
to  their  homes.  When  I  walked  in  the  direction 
opposite  to  theirs,  so  as  to  meet  them  and  see 
their  faces,  I  noted  that  they  all  regarded  me  with 
alert,  searching  glances,  and  they  were  plainly 
at  once  aware  that  I  was  a  stranger.  A  group 
of  children  came  first,  laughing  and  chattering. 
They  were  about  twelve  or  fourteen  years  old. 
One  of  the  girls  gave  me  a  critical  look,  and  re- 
marked to  her  companions,  "He  's  a  detective."  I 
heard  that  exclamation  many  times  during  the 
first  few  days  of  my  sojourn,  but  the  operatives 


NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.       159 

soon  recognized  me  eve^y^vhere.  I  often  walked 
in  the  same '  direction  with  them,  going  a  little 
more  slowly  than  they,  so  as  to  hear  their  talk. 
It  did  not  differ  greatly  from  that  of  young  peo- 
ple of  ajbout  the  same  age  of  any  class  with  which 
I  am  acquainted  ;  "what  Jane  said  about  you  ;  " 
"  what  Ned  told  Delia  Smith  ;  "  and  animated 
remarks  about  the  "  new  things  "  which  some  of 
the  girls  had  bought  lately,  with  grave  talk  of  the 
sickness  of  some  of  their  companions ;  all  this 
accompanied  and  interrupted  by  frequent  careless, 
noisy  laughter.  It  was  rather  pleasant  and  en- 
couraging. The  young  people  of  the  mills  ap- 
peared to  be  very  much  like  other  young  people 
when  in  a  crowd  together  in  the  street. 

When  I  inquired  at  the  hotels  whether  one 
could  see  the  mills,  the  answer  was,  "  Yes,  most 
of  them  ;  but  at  a  few  of  the  largest  the  rules  for- 
bid the  admission  of  visitors.  The  officers  are 
very  strict,  and  if  you  are  a  stranger  you  cannot 
go  in."  In  the  shops  and  business  houses  which 
various  errands  led  me  to  visit,  and  in  which  I 
always  met  gentlemen  who  were  ready  to  talk 
about  the  trade  and  manufactures  of  theit  city, 
this  information  about  the  mills  from  which  vis- 
itors were  excluded  was  often  repeated,  and  the 
same  mills  were  always  named.  I  therefore  de- 
cided to  begin  by  looking  through  the  places 
which  were  thus  reported  to  be  difficult  of  access. 
I  encountered  no  obstacle  anywhere  that  was  not 
easily  surmounted.     I  passed  through  more  than 


160  STUDY  OF  A 

half  a  dozeii  of  the  largest  mills,  inspecting  all 
the  processes  and  details  of  the  manufacture,  from 
the  boiler  room  in  the  cellar,  where  the  smooth, 
resistless  swing  of  the  gigantic  Corliss  engines 
made  one  feel  as  if  he  were  watching  the.  motion 
of  a  planet  in  its  path,  to  the  enormous  tubs  of 
sizing,  high  up  in  the  attic. 

In  all  the  mills  which  I  visited,  far  more  than 
half  the  operatives  were  girls  and  women.  I  saw 
very  few  children  who  appeared  to  be  under 
twelve  years  of  age,  though  I  heard  much  criti- 
cism, among  some  of  my  new  acquaintances  in 
the  city,  of  the  cruelty  of  the  laws  and  usages  re- 
lating to  the  employment  of  young  children  in  the 
mills.  As  to  nationality  or  descent,  the  English, 
Scotch,  and  Irish  operatives,  with  their  children 
born  here,  constitute  the  most  numerous  classes, 
but  there  are  also  many  French  Canadians.  I 
had  often  heard  and  read  the  assertion  that  very 
few  Americans,  or,  more  strictly,  descendants  of 
American  families,  now  work  in  the  mills..  But  I 
found  among  the  operatives  a  considerable  pro- 
portion of  young  women  who  are  the  children  of 
families  that  have  lived  in  this  country  for  one 
hundred  and  fifty  or  two  hundred  years,  and  I 
have  since  learned  that  the  same  thing  is  true  of 
several  other  factory  towns. 

All  the  mill  people  looked  as  if  they  had  enough 
to  eat,  but  some  of  them  showed  in  their  faces  in- 
dications of  the  effects  of  poor  cookery.  Some 
had  the  peculiar  look  which  comes  from  living  in 


tiEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.        161 

impure  air,  and  this  result  is  produced  chiefly,  as 
I  was  convinced  by  what  I  saw  in  the  mills  and 
in  the  homes  of  the  people,  by  the  foulness  of  the 
air  in  the  rooms  in  which  the  operatives  eat  and 
sleep.  In  many,  probably  in  most,  of  their  homes 
the  cooking  is  done  in  the  "  sitting-room ; "  that 
is,  the  apartment  in  which  the  members  of  the 
family  pass  the  evening  together  until  bed-time. 
The  cost  of  fuel  is  one  of  the  principal  expendi- 
tures and  burdens  of  the  household,  and  economy 
in  its  use  is  one  of  the  most  important  means  of 
saving  ;  so  the  room  is  kept  closely  shut  to  pre- 
vent the  escape  of  heat  and  the  entrance  of  cold 
air  from  the  outside.  The  impurity  of  the  air  in 
these  rooms  during  cold  weather  is  very  great,  and 
this  is  one  of  the  most  unwholesome  features  of 
the  life  of  the  operatives. 

The  cotton  is  brought  to  the  mills  in  the  bale, 
"  just  as  it  comes  from  the  fields  in  Indiana,  or 
wherever  it  grows,"  as  an  obliging  overseer  in 
one  of  the  largest  mills  explained  to  me,  and  all 
the  processes  of  picking,  cleaning,  carding,  spin- 
ning, weaving,  dressing,  and  finishing  are  per- 
formed in  the  same  building.  Nearly  all  this 
work  is  done  by  machinery,  and  the  labor  of  the 
operatives  consists  almost  entirely  in  attendance 
upon  the  machinery.  There  are  a  few  things, 
such  as  the  drawing  of  the  threads  of  the  warp 
through  the  "  harness,"  which  are  done  with  the 
fingers,  but  the  wonderful  capabilities  of  the  ma- 
chines leave  very  few  things  to  be  done  by  human 
11 


162  STUDY  OF  A 

bands.  Many  of  the  looms  are  so  constructed 
that  they  stop  at  once  if  a  thread  breaks,  and  do 
not  go  on  till  it  is  mended.  Each  girl  tends  four, 
five,  or  six  looms.  A  few  of  the  most  skillful  can 
manage  eight  looms  each,  as  many  as  the  best 
hands  among  the  men. 

There  is  not  much  work  that  requires  great 
muscular  strength  or  exertion,  not  much  lifting  or 
handling  heavy  materials  or  articles  of  any  kind. 
Most  of  it  requires  alertness  and  exactness  of  at- 
tention, the  concentration  of  the  faculties  and  their 
constant  application  to  the  processes  going  on  un- 
der one's  hand,  rather  than  severe  muscular  effort. 
Such  work  usuallj'  exhausts  the  nervous  vitality 
quite  as  rapidly  as  many  occupations  which  ap- 
pear to  be  more  difficult  and  toilsome.  Most  of 
the  operatives  are  necessarily  on  their  feet  nearly 
all  the  time,  and  this  feature  of  their  work  has  an 
unfavorable  effect  upon  the  health  of  the  women 
and  girls.  They  all  appear  to  be  tired  at  the  end 
of  their  day's  toil,  though  I  saw  no  signs  of  ex- 
treme weariness  or  exhaustion.  It  is  very  hard 
for  any  one  who  is  not  well,  or  who  is  "  nervous  " 
and  sensitive.  The  noise  of  the  machinery  then 
becomes  insufferably  irritating  and  torturing. 

No  part  of  the  work  in  the  mills  appeared  to 
me  so  severe,  or  so  unwholesome,  for  girls  and 
women  as  is  the  toil  of  those  who  run  sewing-ma- 
chines in  city  shops ;  yet  it  is  work  which  requires 
good  health  and  high  average  vitality.  The  high 
temperature  which   is  necessary  for  some  of  the 


NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.        163 

processes  of  cotton  manufacture  renders  the  opera- 
tives specially  liable,  during  the  winter,  to  in  jury- 
by  taking  cold  when  they  pass  into  the  open  air, 
unless  they  use  some  precautions  against  it  by 
putting  on  extra  clothing  when  they  leave  the 
mills.  But  I  observed  that  most  of  them  were 
careless  in  this  respect,  though  not  more  so,  prob- 
ably, than  is  usual  among  the  pupils  of  the  high- 
schools  in  every  part  of  our  country.  I  noted  con- 
siderable coughing,  and  some  complained  of  sore 
throats.  In  several  departments  of  a  mill  the  air 
is  always  filled  by  fine  flying  fibres  and  particles  of 
cotton.  Some  of  these  are  drawn  into  the  lungs, 
and  this  produces  injurious  effects.  When  the 
lungs  are  at  all  sensitive  or  inclined  to  disease,  this 
dust  increases  the  irritation.  Even  for  persons 
who  are  strong  and  well  it  is  of  course  unwhole- 
some, and  it  probably  causes  greater  injury  to 
health  than  any  other  feature  or  condition  of  mill 
work. 

A  group  or  company  of  the  young  people  of  the 
mills,  when  approached  by  a  stranger,  always  ex- 
hibits the  peculiar  instinctive  shrinking  and  draw- 
ing together  for  self-defense  which  is  shown  by 
wild  animals  in  similar  circumstances.  In  the 
mill  people  it  is  a  feeling  of  distrust,  suspicion, 
and  hostility  regarding  all  who  do  not  belong  to 
their  class.  The  first  question  asked  of  a  stranger 
is  always,  "  Do  you  wish  to  get  work  in  the 
mill  ?  "  Of  course  I  was  simply  a  stranger,  who 
wished  to  see  the  mills  and  the  work  which  was 


164  STUDY  OF  A 

done  in  them.  During  the  hour  at  noon,  when 
the  machinery  is  at  rest,  is  a  favorable  time  for 
forming  some  acquaintance  with  the  operatives. 
Many  of  them  have  brought  their  dinner  with 
them,  and  they  eat  it  sitting  on  the  floor,  or  stand- 
ing in  groups  together.  One  scarcely  knows  when 
or  how  the  eating  is  done  in  some  of  these  little 
companies,  for  the  talk  and  chatter  and  laughter 
are  incessant.  The  presence  of  a  stranger  is  at 
first  a  restraint,  and  excites  their  caution  when  he 
approaches  or  addresses  them.  Unless  a  man 
knows  how  to  penetrate  and  disarm  this  reserve, 
he  will  learn  little  from  them  of  their  thought  or 
life.  They  soon  became  merry  and  communica- 
tive with  me.  Some  of  the  younger  girls  were 
then  inclined  to  be  forward  and  impudent,  but 
they  were  checked  and  controlled  by  the  older 
ones. 

The  girls  and  young  women  in  the  mills  "  learn 
to  take  care  of  themselves,"  to  use  a  phrase  which 
one  often  hears  among  them  ;  that  is,  they  are  not 
at  all  ignorant  of  evil  or  vice.  They  know  what 
are  the  dangers  that  beset  and  threaten  young 
girls  in  their  circumstances,  among  men  many  of 
whom  are  coarse  and  sensual.  In  such  conditions 
the  delicacy  and  modesty  of  thought,  deportment, 
and  speech  which  are  so  precious  and  lovely  in  the 
character  of  young  women  are  almost  impossible, 
and  we  have  no  right  to  require  or  expect  them. 
But  these  girls  are  not  so  Kable  to  be  led  into  act- 
ual vice  or  immorality  as  are  some  of  the  pupils  in 


NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.        165 

our  Sunday-schools,  whose  very  ignorance  of  evil, 
and  of  the  need  of  avoiding  or  resisting  it,  some- 
times exposes  them  to  temptation  unwarned  and 
unprepared.  The  mill  girls  are  familiar  with 
coarse  and  vile  language,  and  can  hear  it  una- 
bashed and  without  blushing;  they  can  answer 
in  like  terms.  But  these  facts  are  not,  in  their 
case,  marks  of  extreme  depravity  or  immorality. 
They  afford  no  evidence  of  unchastity.  I  do  not 
believe  that  this  vice  prevails  to  any  considerable 
extent  among  the  young  women  of  the  mills. 
Some  of  the  older  women,  especially  among  the 
English  and  Irish,  have  not  always  been  successful 
in  self-protection,  or  in  repelling  temptation,  as 
one  can  plainly  see.  But  there  is,  as  I  am  thor- 
oughly convinced,  far  less  of  sexual  vice  among 
the  factory  operatives  than  is  usually  attributed 
to  them.  I  am  certain  that  working-people  in 
general,  of  both  sexes,  are  more  pure  and  free 
from  this  vice  than  most  moralists  and  clergymen 
think  them.  Their  toil  represses  passion.  Their 
time  is  filled  by  their  regular  occupations,  and  they 
have  little  leisure  for  vicious  thoughts,  for  nourish- 
ing mischievous  and  profligate  desires.  It  is  among 
idle  men  and  women  that  this  evil  finds  most  of 
its  recruits.  No  system  of  morals  or  of  religious 
culture  has  yet  been  devised  which  provides  any 
effective  safeguard  against  licentiousness  for  those 
who  are  exempt  from  toil. 

In  studying  the  life  of  any  class  of  people,  an 
observer  soon  distinguishes  the  persona  who  can 


166  STUDY  OF  A 

be  of  use  to  him,  who  represent  or  possess  some- 
thing which  he  wishes  to  learn  or  understand. 
When  I  had  found  several  men  and  women  who 
could  thus  be  of  service  to  me,  the  next  step  was 
to  visit  their  homes,  which  I  did  upon  their  invi- 
tation. I  saw  their  food  and  their  methods  of  pre- 
paring it,  examined  the  books  and  papers  which 
they  read,  and  listened  to  their  accounts  of  their 
own  life  and  work  and  experience. 

There  are  but  few  "  tenement  houses  "  in  this 
place  owned  hj  the  mill  proprietors.  Most  of  the 
operatives  find  homes  or  apartments  wherever 
they  prefer,  and  many  of  them  live  in  small  build- 
ings where  there  are  only  two  or  three  families 
under  the  same  roof.  I  think  this  much  better 
than  the  system  of  large  tenement  houses,  unless 
these  could  be  superior  in  design  and  arrangement 
to  the  buildings  of  this  class  which  are  ordinarily 
found  in  American  cities.  There  are,  however, 
a  few  lai'ge  buildings  here  belonging  to  the  mill 
owners,  and  each  is  occupied  by  a  large  number 
of  families.  I  examined  two  or  three  of  them, 
and  am  compelled  to  say  that  their  construction 
is  not  what  it  should  be.  In  some  cases  the  cel- 
lars are  not  properly  secured  against  the  ingress 
of  surface  water,  and  the  water-closets  are  inad- 
equate and  unsuitable.  The  city  government 
should  give  this  matter  immediate  attention.  The 
tenants  should  be  required  by  the  proprietors  to 
keep  the  yards  surrounding  these  houses  in  a  more 
wholesome  and  cleanly  condition  than  that  in 
which  I  found  them. 


NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.        167 

The  cookery  in  the  homes  of  the  operatives,  if 
judged  by  what  I  saw  and  learned  in  several  fam- 
ilies, is  not  usually  very  good.  They  fry  too  much 
of  their  food,  and  many  do  not  know  how  to  ex- 
tract the  nutritive  elements  from  beef-bones  by 
long  boiling.  They  throw  out  to  their  dogs  what 
would  give  them  the  basis  for  a  valuable  and  de- 
licious soup.  (The  operatives  keep  a  great  many 
dogs,  as  is  the  custom  among  poor  people  gener- 
ally, in  this  country.)  If  the  women  had  sufficient 
knowledge  in  regard  to  the  best  methods  of  pre- 
paring it,  they  could  have  better  food  and  more 
of  it  without  additional  expense.  Much  good 
might  be  done  by  an  arrangement  for  instructing 
these  women  and  girls  in  economical  methods  of 
preparing  wholesome  and  appetizing  food.  Per- 
haps the  good  women  of  the  city  who  possess  the 
advantages  of  wealth  and  culture  can  do  some- 
thing to  aid  their  less  fortunate  sisters  among  the 
operatives  in  this  matter. 

The  young  people  of  the  mills  generally  read 
the  story  papers,  published  (most  of  them)  in  New 
York  city,  and  devoted  to  interminably  "contin- 
ued "  narratives,  of  which  there  are  always  three 
or  four  in  process  of  publication  in  each  paper.  I 
have  read  some  of  these  stories.  They  have  usu- 
ally no  very  distinct  educational  quality  or  ten- 
dency, good  or  bad.  They  are  simply  stories,  — 
vapid,  silly,  turgid,  and  incoherent.  As  the  rob- 
ber-heroes are  mostly  grand-looking  fellows,  and 
all  the  ladies  have  white  hands  and  splendid  at- 


168  STUDY  OF  A 

tire,  it  may  be  that  some  of  the  readers  find  hard 
work  more  distasteful  because  of  their  acquaint- 
ance with  the  gorgeous  idlers  and  thieves,  who,  in 
these  fictions  are  always  so  much  more  fortunate 
than  the  people  who  are  honest  and  industrious. 
But  usually,  as  I  am  convinced  by  much  observa- 
tion, the  only  effect  of  this  kind  of  reading  is  that 
it  serves  "  to  pass  away  the  time,"  by  supplying 
a  kind  of  entertainment,  a  stimulus  or  opiate  for 
the  mind,  and  that  these  people  resort  to  it  and 
feel  a  necessity  for  it  in  much  the  same  way  that 
others  feel  they  must  have  whisky  or  opium. 
The  reading  is  a  narcotic,  but  it  is  less  pernicious 
than  those  just  named. 

Many  hundreds  of  the  older  operatives,  espe- 
cially foreigners,  of  two  or  three  nationalities,  were 
reading  a  paper  which  is  devoted  to  the  liberation 
of  the  working-people  of  America.  Its  principal 
literary  attraction  at  this  time  was  a  very  long 
serial  story  of  the  overthrow  of  the  republic  in 
1880.  This  is  written  as  if  the  events  which  form 
the  subject  of  the  narrative  had  already  occurred. 
It  introduces  General  Grant  as  dictator,  and  de- 
scribes elaborately  the  character  and  effects  of  the 
terrible  despotism  which  he  establishes,  in  that 
year,  upon  the  ruins  of  popular  government.  He 
"suppresses  Congress,"  seizes  New  York  city  at 
the  head  of  an  armed  force  and  by  the  assistance 
of  the  capitalists  or  "  money  power  "  of  the  coun- 
try, and  is  about  to  make  himself  emperor,  when 
the  working-people  rise  in  arms,  under  the  direc- 


NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.        169 

tion  of  a  nameless  leader,  "  a  man  with  the  exec- 
utive intellect  of  Caisar,  Napoleon,  and  Bismarck, 
and  the  lofty  impulses  of  Leonidas,  Cincinnatus, 
and  Washington."  (To  continue  the  description 
of  this  personage,  "  he  was  a  man  of  huge  bulk 
and  brawn.  His  head  was  the  size  and  shape  of 
Daniel  Webster's,  whom  he  greatly  resembled, 
except  in  being  of  the  blonde  type.  His  awful 
gray  eyes  had  a  power  in  them  far  beyond  that  of 
the  orbs  of  the  indolent  Webster.") 

The  workingmen,  soldiers  of  the  new  revolu- 
tion, are  instructed  by  this  hero  to  supply  their 
own  needs  from  the  abundant  stores  of  their  neigh- 
bors, giving  them  receipts  in  the  name  of  the  rev- 
olution for  the  property  thus  forcibly  appropriated. 
They  accordingly  seize  the  national  banks,  and 
help  themselves  to  as  much  money  as  they  desire. 
This  story  was  read  with  deep  interest  by  many 
of  the  older  operatives,  especially  those  who  were 
interested  in  labor  reform.  The  paper  containing 
it  prints  each  week  a  declaration  of  principles, 
which  affirms  that  the  government  should  hold  all 
the  land  of  the  nation  ;  that  it  should  be  without 
price  (the  free  use  of  as  much  of  it  as  he  can  cul- 
tivate being  secured  to  every  man)  ;  that  ground 
rents  of  towns  and  cities  should  be  controlled  by 
government ;  that  gold  and  silver  should  be  de- 
monetized, and  that  in  their  stead  absolute  paper 
money  should  be  issued  by  the  government ;  thab» 
interest  on  money  should  be  forbidden  ;  that  all 
mines,  railroads,  and  highways  should  be  owned 


170  STUDY  OF  A 

and  controlled  by  the  government ;  that  the  gov- 
ernment ought  not  to  interfere  for  the  collection 
of  debts  between  individuals,  but  that  the  pay- 
ment of  debts  should  be  left  entirely  to  the  honor 
of  the  debtor.  There  should  be  an  income  tax  on 
all  incomes  above  one  thousand  dollars,  growing 
heavier  for  larger  sums.  Eight  hours'  labor  should 
be  a  legal  day's  work,  and  the  senate  of  the  United 
States  should  be  abolished.  Recently  the  paper 
has  devoted  much  space  to  the  advocacy  of  "  the 
right  of -the  people  to  free  travel:  "  the  govern- 
ment should  own  the  railroads,  and  tax  capitalists 
to  obtain  means  for  operating  them,  and  people 
who  do  not  wish  to  pay  fares  should  be  permitted 
to  ride  free.  This  paper  has  a  large  circulation 
among  operatives,  miners,  and  city  mechanics,  in 
nearly  all  parts  of  the  country.  It  is  a  large  sheet, 
and  is  conducted  with  much  ability.  It  always 
contains  two  or  three  serial  stories  by  popular  writ- 
ers, which  are  designed  to  "  float "  the  heavier  ar- 
ticles devoted  to  the  propagation  of  the  doctrines 
of  the  agitators,  who  seek  to  establish  a  univer- 
sal, international  sovereignty  of  workingmen  upon 
principles  and  methods  which  contradict  and  op- 
pose every  essential  of  civilization.  The  tone  and 
spirit  of  the  paper  are  indescribably  bitter,  and 
expressive  of  intense  hostility  against  the  possess- 
ors of  property  and  culture.  It  represents  capi- 
•talists  as  a  class  of  cruel  and  inhuman  oppressors, 
and  instructs  the  working-people  that  the  time  is 
at  hand  for  them  to  seize  the  rights  of  which  they 


NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.        171 

have  been  so  long  deprived.  All  its  teaching  is 
opposed  to  the  spirit  and  principle  of  nationality, 
and  tends,  so  far  as  it  has  any  effect,  to  produce 
social  and  political  disintegration. 

There  is  a  labor-reform  newspaper  published  in 
this  city  of  mills,  and  I  had  much  conversation 
with  the  editor.  He  thinks  the  mill  owners  and 
capitalists  of  the  city  ate  thoroughly  selfish  and 
heartless  ;  that  they  have  no  regard  for  the  inter- 
ests or  welfare  of  the  operatives,  and  care  only  to 
obtain  the  greatest  possible  amount  of  labor  from 
them  for  the  least  possible  pay.  He  was  engaged, 
when  I  saw  him,  in  the  promotion  of  a  movement 
having  for  its  object  the  reduction  of  the  hours 
of  labor  in  the  mills.  The  legal  day's  work  is 
now  ten  hours,  but  my  friend  the  editor  informed 
me  that  the  mill  agents  often  disregard  the  law 
and  work  the  hands  ten  and  a  half,  and  even 
eleven  hours  per  day.  He  said  that  the  largest 
mill  in  the  city  was  run  nearly  seventy  hours  one 
week,  and  that  the  agent  of  this  mill  was  "  deter- 
mined to  be  king  of  devils." 

I  asked  the  editor  wh^  change  he  regarded  as, 
at  present,  most  important  and  necessary  for  the 
emancipation  of  labor  and  the  improvement  of  the 
condition  of  the  working-people  ;  and  he  replied, 
"  The  next  great  step  is  the  reduction  of  the  hours 
of  labor." 

"  What  should  be  the  length  of  a  day's  work  ?  'L 

"  We  are  workmg  now  to  obtain  more  stringent 
legislation  against  running  the  mills  more   than 


172  STUDY  OF  A 

ten  hours,  but  six  hours  a  day  would  be  enough 
for  people  to  work." 

I  asked  him  if  he  could  give  me  any  informa- 
tion regarding  the  amount  of  deposits  by  opera- 
tives in  the  savings-banks  of  the  city.  This  is 
his  reply,  in  a  note  which  he  kindly  sent  me  not 
long  ago,  and  which  is  now  before  me :  "  I  have 
no  exact  means  of  stating  the  precise  amount, 
but  it  is  practically  nothing.  There  is  no  city 
where  the  operatives  own  fewer  bank-books  than 
here.  The  operatives  of  this  city  are  very  poor 
indeed,  perhaps  no  place  poorer,  and  the  per  cent. 
who  own  their  homes  is  a  great  deal  smaller. 
Factory  life  has  almost  reached  serfdom." 

I  thought  my  friend  a  well-meaning,  sincere 
man,  but  extreme  in  his  bitterness  against  cap- 
italists. He  could  give  me  little  information  re- 
garding the  most  important  features  of  the  life  of 
the  operatives  of  his  city,  but  I  am  grateful  to 
him  for  the  opportunity  for  acquaintance  with  his 
opinions  and  the  aims  of  his  fellow-reformers. 

I  am  obliged  to  say  that  I  found  few  signs  of 
interest  among  the  work  people  in  reforms  of  any 
kind.  Most  of  them  appeared  to  be  entirely  in- 
different to  such  matters,  and  to  political  subjects 
in  general.  But  there  is  a  considerable  number 
of  men,  especially  among  the  spinners,  who  are 
discontented  under  what  they  deem  tyranny  and 
oppression  on  the  part  of  the  raUl  owners  and 
agents.  These  operatives  have  an  organization, 
or  society,  for  the  promotion  of  their  aims,  and 


NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.        173 

they  employ  a  secretary  with  a  salary  sufficient  to 
enable  him  to  devote  his  time  to  their  interests. 
I  met  this  secretaiy,  and  had  a  long  conversation 
with  him.  He  is  a  foreigner,  and  seemed  a  very 
good-natured  fellow.  He  thought  that  in  cases 
of  dissatisfaction  on  the  part  of  the  operatives, 
the  employers  were  usually  ready  to  hear  and  con- 
sider any  statement  which  the  working-people 
might  wish  to  present  through  a  committee  of 
their  own  choosing.  He  appeared  to  regai-d  the 
owners  and  agents  as  reasonable  men,  who  were 
disposed  to  deal  justly  with  the  laborers  ;  and  I 
thought  that  he,  more  than  any  other  of  the  re- 
formers whom  I  met,  understood  that  both  cap- 
italists and  laborers  in  this  country  are  suffering 
from  the  operation  of  causes  which  no  legislation 
or  reform  could  at  once  remove. 

The  operatives  are  paid  by  the  piece,  and  not 
by  the  day  or  hour ;  that  is,  it  is  the  quantity  of 
goods  manufactured,  and  not  the  amount  of  time 
employed,  which  determines  the  amount  of  wages 
paid.  The  reformers  complained  that  when  a 
new  mill  is  opened  the  agent  stimulates  the  opera- 
tives to  the  highest  possible  performance  and  pro- 
duction for  the  first  few  days,  and  then  adjusts 
the  wages-rate  upon  the  basis  of  what  the  best 
hands  have  thus  been  able  to  do  for  a  short  time. 
As  only  a  few  operatives  are  capable  of  such  a 
pace,  and  even  they  cannot  maintain  it  perma- 
nently, the  arrangement  has  the  effect  of  estab- 
lishing a  low  rate  of  wages.     (That  is,  if  we  rep- 


174  STUDY  OF  A 

resent  by  one  hundred  the  amount  of  work  per- 
formed in  a  day  by  the  best  hands  when  spurred 
to  unusual  activity,  the  average  daily  performance 
will  not  rise  above  eighty-five  or  ninety ;  but  the 
amount  of  pay  is  regulated  upon  the  assumption 
that  the  average  daily  work  will  reach  one  hun- 
dred.) 

The  reformers  thought  the  average  pay  of  the 
operatives  of  the  city,  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  was 
considerably  less  than  one  dollar  per  day  for  "  full 
hands,"  that  is,  for  those  who  can  do  a  full  day's 
work  ;  but  the  mill  owners  and  agents  assured  me 
that  the  average  pay  was  above  one  dollar  per 
day.  J  visited  the  agents  and  managers  of  several 
of  the  largest  mills,  and  asked  them  for  their  view 
of  the  condition  of  the  operatives  and  of  the  sit- 
uation and  prospects  of  the  cotton  manufacture 
in  the  city.  They  answered  my  inquiries  with 
ready,  quiet  courtesy.  Here  is  the  substance  of 
the  notes  which  I  made  as  we  talked :  — 

"  The  women  weavers  are  paid  a  little  more 
than  one  dollar  per  day.  Any  boy  of  thirteen  or 
fourteen  years  old  can  make  two  dollars  and  a 
half  per  week.  Operatives  pay  for  rent,  for  four 
rooms,  from  three  and  a  half  dollars  to  six  dol- 
lars per  month.  The  owners  and  managers  are 
satisfied  with  the  ten-hour  law,  and  do  not  think 
any  additional  legislation  necessary  (in  this  State) 
for  the  proper  regulation  of  the  relations  between 
capital  and  labor,  or  the  working-people  and  their 
employers.     We  prefer  ten  hours  per  day,  but  as 


NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.        175 

the  machinery  is  run  by  steam-power  we  have  to 
start  it  a  little  before  the  hour,  and  some  of  the 
hands  always  go  to  work  at  once,  in  order  to  add 
a  little  to  the  day's  production,  and  so  to  their 
wages.  At  present  rates  of  pay,  the  average  op- 
eratives can  save  something  from  their  wages. 
If  we  compare  the  cost  of  living  and  wages  of  the 
times  before  the  war,  say  in  1860,  with  the  cost 
of  living  and  wages  now,  we  shall  find  that  op- 
eratives are  better  paid  now  than  they  were  then. 
All  of  us,  operatives  and  employers,  have  lived 
more  exti^avagantly  since  the  war  than  ever  be- 
fore. All  wars  make  waste,  and  we  are  all  of  us 
suffering  from  the  consequences  of  the  waste 
caused  by  our  civil  war,  and  especially  by  the 
unwise  expenditure  of  money  since  1865.  When 
wages  were  very  high,  a  few  years  ago,  the  oper- 
atives wasted  nearly  all  that  they  received.  Few 
of  them  saved  anything.  We  must  all  learn  and 
practice  economy.  Many  people  who  are  regarded 
as  being  rich  are  living  more  carefully  and  eco- 
nomically than  most  of  the  working-people,  be- 
cause they  have  more  foresight  and  a  clearer  un- 
derstanding of  the  absolute  necessity  of  keeping 
their  expenditures  within  their  income. 

"  The  corporations  do  not  own  one  fourth  of 
the  tenements  or  dwellings  occupied  by  the  op- 
eratives. It  is  for  the  interest  of  the  capitalists 
that  the  operatives  should  own  the  houses  they 
live  in,  and  that  as  many  as  possible  should  have 
homes   of  their  own.     The  capitalists   and  mill 


176  STUDY  OF  A 

owners  of  the  city  all  wish  the  operatives  to  buy 
land  and  build  houses,  and  are  always  ready  to 
sell  them  land  at  low  rates,  and  to  allow  ag  much 
time  for  the  payment  as  the  purchasers  desire. 
Many  of  the  operatives  in  the  hirgest  mill,  and 
some  in  all  of  them,  have  thus  come  into  posses- 
sion of  comfortable  homes.  A  man  and  his  wife 
came  into  one  of  the  mills,  a  few  years  ago,  from 
a  manufacturing  town  in  England.  They  were 
then  about  fifty  years  old,  and  had  never  been 
able  to  have  meat  on  their  table  except  when  now 
and  then  the  man  caught  a  hare.  They  were 
industrious  and  economical,  saved  money,  and 
bought  a  piece  of  ground.  A  year  or  two  ago 
they  built  a  four-tenement  house  (a  house  with 
suites  of  rooms  for  four  families).  They  occupy 
one  and  let  the  three  others  to  tenants,  and  are 
living  in  comfort  and  happiness. 

"  For  several  years  the  mills  have  been  run  in 
the  interest  of  the  operatives.  Probably  not  more 
than  one  fourth  of  the  mills  in  the  city  can  pay 
any  dividends  during  the  current  year.  The  capi- 
tal invested  in  the  mills  amounts  to  nearly  thirty 
millions  of  dollars ;  and  for  several  years  the 
profits  upon  these  investments  have  not  equaled 
one  half  of  the  lowest  rates  of  interest  paid  by 
the  savings-banks  of  the  country.  If  the  ideas 
or  principles  of  the  ti'ades-unions  could  be  carried 
out,  half  the  mills  would  be  bankrupt  in  ten  years. 
The  intelligence  of  the  laboring  people  is  increas- 
ing ;  we  hope  so,  at  any   rate.     A  few  wrong- 


NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.        177 

headed  and  impracticable  men  wish  to  make  mis- 
chief. In  all  cases  of  dissatisfaction  on  the  part 
of  operatives  if  they  appoint  a  committee  to  meet 
the  managers,  everything  can  be  amicably  ar- 
ranged ;  but  a  few  agitators  do  whatever  they  can 
to  produce  discontent  among  the  working-people, 
and  to  disturb  the  relations  between  them  and 
their  employers.  One  of  the  labor  reformers 
bought  a  share  or  two  of  the  stock  of  one  of  the 
largest  mills,  in  order  to  gain  admission  to  the 
meetings  of  the  stockholders.  Then  he  constantly 
reported  the  proceedings  of  these  meetings  to  the 
trades-union  of  which  he  was  a  member,  and  used 
the  knowledge  he  had  obtained  relative  to  the 
affairs  of  the  mill  corporation  as  a  basis  for  per- 
petual complaint  and  agitation  among  the  opera- 
tives." 

The  capitalists  and  mill  owners  of  the  city  with 
whom  I  conversed  attributed  the  prevailing  de- 
pression of  business  and  industry  in  large  meas- 
ure to  the  waste  of  capital  necessarily  produced 
by  our  civil  war,  and  in  still  greater  degree  to  the 
extravagance  of  expenditure  which  was  so  gen- 
eral among  our  people  a  few  years  ago.  They 
thought  that  the  principal  means  of  recovery  must 
be  economy  and  wisdom  in  expenditure ;  that  cap- 
italists and  employers  have  come  to  understand 
this  necessity  more  fully  than  the  operatives  do, 
as  a  class ;  and  that  those  who  belong  to  the  cap- 
italist class  are  at  present  really  more  saving  and 

12 


178  STUDY  OF  A 

economical  in  their  methods  of   living  than  the 
operatives. 

I  was  greatly  interested  in  learning  about  the 
amusements  or  diversions  of  the  mill  people.  My 
first  step  was  to  ask  a  great  many  of  the  young 
women  what  they  did  in  the  evening,  after  work- 
ing hours  were  over.  The  French  Canadian  girls, 
who  are  Catholics,  nearly  all  replied,  "  We  stay 
at  home.  We  have  to  sew,  and  mend  our  clothes, 
and  wash  them.  We  do  not  know  anybody,  and 
so  we  have  no  place  to  go  in  the  evening."  At 
times  the  answer  was,  "  My  mother  "  or  "  my  sis- 
ter will  not  let  me  go  out."  Most  of  the  other 
young  women  said,  "  Oh,  we  go  out  with  our  fel- 
lers, and  with  some  of  the  other  girls."  "  And 
where  do  you  go  ?  "  "  Oh,  along  the  streets,  down 
town ;  to  the  post-office,  or  the  candy-store,  if 
the  boys  will  shout."  "  If  they  will  shout,  —  what 
is  that?"  "Oh,  don't  you  know?  Why,  that 
means  if  they  will  treat, —  if  they  will  buy  some 
candy  for  us."  "  And  do  you  drink  something, 
too  ?  "  To  this  the  younger  women  always  an- 
swered, "No,  we  don't  drink  anything,  unless  it's 
soda-water,  sometimes,  in  warm  weather."  But 
they  usually  pointed  to  some  older  companion, 
and  said,  "  She  drinks,  —  she  drinks  beer."  Then 
the  woman  thus  spoken  of  would  laugh,  and  toss 
her  head,  and  say,  "  Ain't  you  goin'  to  shout  ?  " 
And  when  I  met  the  same  group  in  the  street  in 
the  evening,  the  question  would  be  repeated,  with 
a  smile  of  recognition. 


NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.        179 

I  do  not  think  these  girls  and  younger  women 
havG  usually  any  habitual  amusement,  except  this 
walking  out  with  their  friends  which  I  have  just 
mentioned.  Once  or  twice  during  the  winter 
many  of  them  go  to  a  ball.  To  go  more  fre- 
quently would  be  regarded  by  their  own  class  as 
an  extravagance,  as  an  indication  of  unsteadiness 
and  a  tendency  to  dissipation.  I  found  many 
young  people  in  the  mills  who  "  belonged,"  as 
they  said,  to  the  Methodist  church,  and  some  who 
were  Baptists.  Probably  there  were,  among  the 
operatives,  members  of  other  religious  societies, 
but  I  did  not  happen  to  meet  them. 

The  young  people  whom  I  have  thus  far  been 
describing  appeared  to  be  rather  steady  and  well- 
behaved.  They  looked  and  acted  as  if  they  kept 
good  hours,  and  had  no  marks  of  anything  wild 
or  irregular  about  them.  But  I  saw  others,  both 
young  men  and  women,  whom  I  knew  at  once  to 
be  of  a  different  type.  Every  class,  every  type 
of  character,  has  a  rhythm  of  its  own,  which  runs 
through  all  bodily  movements,  through  the  tones 
of  the  voice ;  which  is  accented  in  glances  and 
changes  of  expression,  and  is  revealed  in  all  spon- 
taneous mental  action.  I  knew  that  some  of  these 
young  people  would  have  other  amusements  than 
those  I  have  described.  I  did  not  think  it  wise 
to  ask  any  of  them  how  they  passed  their  even- 
ings. I  thought  there  might  be  better  ways  of 
acquiring  this  knowledge. 

I  had  observed  in  various  parts  of  the  city  such 


180  STUDY  OF  A 

signs  as  "  Harmony  Hall,"  "  The  Avon  Arms," 
"  St.  George's  Hall,"  etc.  I  sauntered  into  one 
of  these  places,  one  evening,  about  nine  o'clock. 
It  was  on  the  second  floor,  and  was  reached  by 
an  open  stair-way  running  up  from  the  street.  I 
found  a  hall  about  fifty  feet  long  and  twenty-five 
wide.  At  one  end  was  a  bar  for  the  sale  of  liq- 
uors, and  at  the  other  a  curtained  recess  and  a 
small  stage  or  platform  elevated  two  or  three  steps 
from  the  floor.  There  were  about  fifty  persons  pres- 
ent, grouped  around  eight  or  ten  tables.  About 
one  fourth  of  them  were  young  women.  Some 
of  the  young  men  were  smoking.  There  were 
glasses  on  the  tables,  and  some  of  the  young  peo- 
ple were  drinking  beer.  As  I  went  up  the  stairs, 
I  heard  the  clang  of  a  piano  much  out  of  tune  and 
the  clapping  of  hands,  and  a  young  man  was  just 
descending  from  the  stage,  while  he  smiled  and 
bowed  in  acknowledgment  of  the  applause.  He 
sat  down  with  one  of  the  groups  nearest  the  stage, 
and  some  one  at  the  table  called  for  "  four  beers." 
The  four  glasses  were  taken  away  by  a  pleasant- 
looking  English  girl,  and  brought  back  filled. 
There  were  similar  requests  from  various  parts  of 
the  room,  and  after  she  had  responded  to  them 
the  young  waitress  approached  the  place  where  I 
sat  alone,  and  civilly  inquired,  "  Is  there  anything 
you  wish  for  ?  "  I  gave  her  an  order  that  would 
bring  her  back  to  my  table  now  and  then. 

When   most  of   the  glasses  had  been  emptied 
once  or  twice,  some  one  said,  quietly,  "Mr.  Lee 


NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.        181 

will  oblige,"  and  there  was  a  general  clapping  of 
bands.  A  young  Englishman  ascended  the  stage, 
and  sang,  in  tolerable  accord  with  the  weary,  pro- 
testing piano,  a  melancholy  song  about  a  sailor 
lover  who  sailed  away  from  his  mistress  and  never 
returned.  Both  hearts  were  true :  one  lies  "  in 
his  long,  last  sleep,  a  thousand  fathoms  deep, 
where  the  wild  monsoons  do  sweep  "  forever  above 
his  rest ;  the  other  "  watched  her  life  away,  look- 
ing seaward  o'er  the  bay,"  from  a  New  England 
hill-top,  and  hoping  to  the  end  for  one  who  came 
no  more.  At  the  close  there  was  more  applause 
and  more  beer,  and  for  some  time  busy,  chatter- 
ing talk.  There  was  nothing  loud  or  boisterous. 
One  of  the  girls,  who  was  a  little  tipsy,  came 
across  the  room,  in  a  rather  demonstrative  way, 
and  asked  me  if  I  was  not  "  going  to  shout ;  "  but 
a  young  man  at  the  table  she  had  left  reproved 
her  sharply,  and  one  of  the  young  women  from 
the  same  company  came  over  and  led  her  back  to 
her  place. 

By  this  time  I  had  noted  most  of  those  present 
as  persons  whom  I  had  met  before,  in  the  mills 
and  on  the  streets.  They  were  nearly  all  opera- 
tives, or  had  at  some  time  belonged  to  that  class. 
But  I  observed  at  one  of  the  tables,  with  half  a 
dozen  young  men  and  women  around  him,  a 
young  colored  man  whom  I  had  never  seen  until 
now.  He  was  more  silent  than  any  other  member 
of  the  company,  but  was  evidently  the  object  of 
general  attention  and  respect.     He  was  the  only 


182  STUDY  OF  A 

person  of  his  color  in  the  hall,  but  was  plainly 
as  welcome  there  as  any  one.  He  seemed  ob- 
viously superior  to  his  neighbors,  and  I  was  in- 
terested at  once,  and  felt  that  I  must  know  some- 
thing about  him.  Presently  there  was  another 
invitation  to  the  stage,  and  when  the  young  col- 
ored man  rose  to  comply  with  it  there  was  un- 
usually hearty  applause.  He  sang  one  song  after 
another  till  he  seemed  tired,  but  the  audience  was 
still  impatient  for  more.  The  songs  were  of  many 
kinds,  comic,  sentimental,  pathetic,  and  silly.  One 
had  these  stanzas  :  — 

'  Sampson  was  a  strong  man, 

He  was  not  counted  lazy; 
He  took  the  jaw-bone  of  a  shark 

And  slewed  the  gates  of  Gazy. 

"It  rained  forty  days  and  forty  nights 

Exactly  by  the  countin',  ' 

And  landed  Noah  and  his  ark 
On  the  Alleghany  mountain." 

When  he  sang  "  I  got  a  mammy  in  the  promised 
land,"  with  "a  strange,  wailing  refrain,  the  English 
waiter-girl,  who  was  sitting  at  my  table,  wiped 
her  eyes  with  her  apron,  and  everybody  was  very 
quiet.  He  sang  and  acted  with  a  kind  of  sup- 
pressed intensity  of  manner  and  expression,  and 
I  thought  that  to  him  the  dusty  hall  and  its  some- 
what squalid  appointments  had  given  plaoe  to 
a  grand  theatre,  thronged  by  an  admiring,  ap- 
plauding audience.  He  seemed  rapt  and  inspired. 
His  face  was  black,  and  the  features  African  in 
type,  but  not  at  all  repulsive  or  unpleasant.   When 


NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.        183 

he  left  the  stage,  I  sent  the  waiter-girl  to  tell  him 
I  wished  to  see  him.  He  came  down  the  hall 
with  a  dignified  courtesy  of  manner ;  we  were  in- 
troduced, and  had  a  little  conversation.  I  found 
him  very  intelligent.  He  talked  well,  but  quietly 
and  deliberately.  His  speech  was  that  of  culti- 
vated New  England  people,  and  had  none  of  the 
peculiarities  which  usually  mark  the  language 
and  utterance  of  colored  persons. 

It  would  not  do  to  show  too  much  curiosity  or 
interest  there,  as  this  was  my  first  visit  to  the 
hall ;  but  I  arranged  to  meet  my  colored  friend 
next  day,  and  took  my  leave,  assured  of  a  wel- 
come there  whenever  I  might  return.  I  visited 
half  a  dozen  simihir  places  before  midnight.  They 
were  all  much  alike.  I  spent  several  hours,  at 
various  times,  in  these  music  halls,  calling  some- 
times in  the  afternoon,  because  the  attendants  had 
more  time  then  than  in  the  evening.  Some  of 
them  had  stories  to  tell  which  I  wished  to  hear, 
but  I  had  to  wait  till  I  had  established  such  re- 
lations between  us  as  would  inspire  them  with 
the  willingness  to  talk  to  me. 

All  the  attendants  at  these  places  had  worked 
in  the  mills.  The  young  man  who  plays  the  piano 
is  usually  paid  four  or  five  dollars  per  week,  be- 
sides his  board.  The  young  men  who  sing  receive 
one  dollar  per  night,  but  most  of  them  board 
themselves.  The  real  business  at  all  these  places 
is  the  sale  of  liquor.  They  all  keep  cigars,  and 
most  of  them  have  pies  and  a  few  other  articles 


184  STUDY  OF  A 

of  food,  but  the  profits  come  from  the  drinking. 
The  piano,  the  singing,  and  recitations  attract  and 
entertain  visitors.  These  resorts  are  sustained  al- 
most entirely  by  the  operatives,  besides  a  great 
many  other  places  whei-e  there  is  no  music  or  en- 
tertainment of  any  kind,  except  the  drink.  At 
the  city  clerk's  office  I  learned  from  the  official 
records  that  there  are  in  the  city  two  hundred 
and  fifty-seven  houses  licensed  to  sell  liquors,  and 
many  of  the  leading  citizens  expressed  the  opin- 
ion that  the  unlicensed  drinking  places  (where 
liquor  is  sold  unlawfully)  were  at  least  equal  in 
number.  Last  year  there  were  5,400  voters  in  the 
city ;  so  there  was  a  licensed  drinking  saloon  for 
every  twenty-one  voters.  The  city's  revenue  from 
these  licenses  last  year  was  $38,782.  This  large 
sum,  and  a  great  deal  besides,  the  liquor  dealers 
received  from  the  working-people,  —  a  very  large 
proportion  of  it  from  the  mill  hands.  At  one  of 
these  music  halls  the  woman  in  charge  informed 
me  that  "  the  expenses  of  the  establishment " 
averaged  two  hundred  dollars  per  month,  and  I 
visited  several  places  which  did  a  much  larger 
business  than  this  one. 

The  editor  of  the  labor-reform  newspaper  told 
me  that  the  most  usual  course  for  a  man  who  for 
any  reason  falls  out  of  the 'ranks  of  mill  workers 
(if  he  loses  his  place  by  sickness,  or  is  discharged) 
is  the  opening  of  a  liquor  saloon  or  drinking  place. 
He  takes  up  this  business  for  a  living  and  rarely 
quits  it  for  any  other  occupation.     At  first,  he 


NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.        185 

buys  a  very  small  stock,  —  a  keg  of  beer,  or  a 
few  gallons  of  low-grade  whisky.  He  hires  a  lit- 
tle corneF  or  closet  in  some  shop  or  basement,  or 
he  begins  in  his  own  cellar,  and  is  soon  able  to  lay 
in  a  larger  and  more  varied  supply.  After  much 
observation  and  study  of  the  subject  in  most  of 
the  States  of  our  countiy,  I  believe  there  is  no 
other  kind  of  business  or  employment  which  can 
be  entered  upon  or  engaged  in  with  so  little  capi- 
tal, or  which  will  yield  so  large  a  return  in  propor- 
tion to  the  amount  invested.  There  is  greater 
profit  and  less  risk  of  loss  than  in  any  other  occu- 
pation which  is  open  to  so  many  people.  Its  prin- 
cipal support  comes  from  the  classes  engaged  in 
manual  labor.  Many  men  will  buy  intoxicating 
liquors  when  they  and  their  families  are  suffering 
for  food.  Whatever  degree  of  poverty  may  pre- 
vail among  the  working-people,  those  who  sell 
liquor  to  them  still  find  the  business  profitable. 
The  great  causes  of  the  drinking  habit  among  the 
working-people  are  poor  cookery,  living  in  impure 
air,  and  the  lack  of  any  dramatic  entertainment 
or  amusement  for  their  evenings  or  times  of  lei- 
sure. 

I  met  the  young  colored  man  several  times,  and 
found  him  a  person  to  give  one  a  sad  kind  of  in- 
terest in  him.  He  was  just  then  doing  more  to 
amuse  and  entertain  the  mill  people  than  any  one 
else  in  the  city,  so  I  gave  a  little  time  to  conver- 
sation with  him.  I  like  average  and  ordinary 
men  and   women  best,  and   have  not  commonly 


186  STUDY  OF  A 

found  what  is  unusual  or  extraordinary  in  human 
life  or  character  best  worth  study  or  acquaint- 
ance. But  this  man  was  not  precisely  what  I 
was  looking  for.  On  one  occasion  I  asked  hira 
who  was  the  author  of  a  song  he  had  just  sung. 
Looking  at  me  keenly,  he  asked,  "  Do  you  like 
it  ?  "  "  Yes,"  I  said  ;  "  it  is  simple  and  tender 
and  natural."  "  Well,"  he  replied,  "  it  is  mine, 
such  as  it  is."  "  Do  you  mean  that  you  wrote 
the  words  ?  "  "  Yes,  the  words  and  the  music." 
"  Have  you  written  others  ?  "  "  Oh,  yes  ;  I  have 
quite  an  income  from  my  songs."  "  Where  are 
they  published  ? "  He  gave  me  the  name  of  a 
well-known  music-publishing  house  in  Boston,  and 
when  I  came  home  I  ordered  specimens  of  my 
friend's  compositions.  They  were  sent  to  me,  and 
I  found  everything  as  he  had  told  me. 

I  asked  him  if  he  had  been  singing  at  these 
places  in  the  city  very  long.  "Nearly  a  year,"  he 
replied ;  and  then  he  told  me  that  his  business  was 
negro  minstrelsy  and  theatricals.  He  had  traveled 
with  the  principal  companies  in  this  country,  and 
had  a  permanent  engagement  at  a  good  salary. 
But  about  a  year  ago  his  mother  died.  •  He  was 
greatly  attached  to  her,  was  with  her  in  her  last 
illness,  and  was  "  too  heart-broken  to  be  making 
money.  I  did  not  feel  like  acting,  and  thought  it 
would  show  more  respect  to  my  mother,  if  she 
knows  about  it,  if  I  did  not  appear  in  public  for  a 
year.  I  sing  a  little  in  this  private  way  to  accom- 
modate my  friends  here,  and  because  it  is  not  good 


NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.        187 

to  be  doing  nothing."  He  acknowledged  that  he 
drank  too  much,  and  that  his  Hfe  was  not  what  it 
should  be.  I  asked  him  if  anybody  had  ever  en- 
couraged him  to  cultivate  his  mind  and  make  a 
man  of  himself.  "  No,"  said  he  ;  "  the  only  en- 
couragement anybody  ever  gave  me  was,  '  Bill,  go 
another  dollar  on  this  ! '  "  But  many  people  would 
probably  find  this  man's  story  more  interesting  if 
it  were  not  true. 

At  the  principal  hotel  I  met  many  salesmen  and 
book-keepers  from  the  shops  and  stores  of  the 
city,  and  when  there  was  opportunity  I  sometimes 
made  inquiries  regarding  the  mill  people,  —  their 
character  and  ways  of  living.  These  gentlemen 
always  appeared  to  be  surprised  that  I  should  be 
interested  about  the  operatives,  or  suppose  there 
was  anything  in  their  life  that  was  worthy  of 
attention.  At  one  time  there  was  considerable 
excitement  among  ray  friends  at  the  hotel,  on  ac- 
count of  the  announcement  that  a  certain  "  cele- 
brated star  troupe  "  of  actors  would  appear  "  for 
one  night  only "  at  the  Academy  of  Music.  It 
was  to  be  a  "  variety  entertainment,"  to  comprise 
a  play  in  two  acts,  songs,  dances,  a  trapeze  per- 
formance, etc.,  —  all  of  the  vei-y  highest  charac- 
ter. My  companions  at  the  table  courteously  ad- 
vised me  to  go.  It  would  be  a  good  opportunity 
to  see  the  people  of  the  city,  as  the  attendance 
would  be  very  large.  "  Will  the  mill  people  be 
there  ? "  I  inquired.  "  Oh,  no  [with  impa- 
tience] ;  they  are  not  capable  of  appreciating  any- 


188  STUDY  OF  A 

thing  of  this  kind.  They  have  their  own  low 
amusements,  but  this  is  first-class:"  I  went.  The 
house  was  filled  with  well-dressed  people  of  both 
sexes.  The  feature  of  the  entertainment  which 
was  most  to  the  mind  of  the  audience  was  a  song. 
A  rather  pretty  girl  came  out  in  spangled  tights, 
and  sang  half  a  dozen  stanzas  with  this  refrain :  — 

"  So,  boys,  keep  away  from  the  girls,  I  say, 
And  give  them  plenty  of  room  ; 
For  when  you  are  wed  they  will  bang  till  you  're  dead 
With  the  bald-headed  end  of  a  broom." 

This  was  "  received  with  great  enthusiasm,"  as 
the  play-bills  said  it  would  be,  and  was  encored 
again  and  again.  I  looked  around  over  the  ap- 
plauding multitude ;  the  mill  people  were  not 
there. 

The  mills  were  running  on  full  time,  and  were 
worked  to  their  utmost  capacity,  with  all  the 
hands  the  machinery  would  employ.  They  re- 
quire about  fifteen  thousand  hands.  But  there 
were,  as  I  judged  from  all  I  could  learn  about  the 
matter,  between  fifteen  hundred  and  two  thousand 
persons  of  the  operative  class  in  the  city  in  excess 
of  the  number  which  the  mills  could  employ. 
These  were  destitute  of  work,  except  when,  now 
and  then,  the  temporary  illness  of  some  hand  left 
a  place  vacant,  and  so  gave  the  opportunity  of 
work  to  one  of  these  superfluous  laborers  for  a 
day  or  two.  There  was  much  hardship  among 
these  people.  Many  had  families,  and  their  chil- 
dren  suffered  for   food.     In  some   of   the  worst 


NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.        189 

cases  the  city  gave  assistance ;  the  labor  unions 
sustained  others,  in  part ;  and  neighborly  kind- 
ness among  the  operatives  was  more  helpful  than 
either.  The  labor -reform  agitation,  in  all  its 
stages,  from  vague  discontent  to  violent  denuncia- 
tion, was  reinforced  and  sustained  chiefly  by  the 
presence  of  this  unemployed  class.  Their  life 
was  a  daily  struggle  against  the  inevitable,  —  a 
long  and  useless  waiting  for  what  could  not  come. 
Every  morning  some  hundreds  of  these  seekers 
after  employment  presented  themselves  at  the 
doors  of  the  mills,  in  the  hope,  almost  always  a 
vain  one,  that  a  few  of  them  might  be  wanted. 

The  overseers  at  the  mills  kindly  allowed  per- 
sons seeking  work  to  put  down  their  names  in  ap- 
plication for  the  opportunity  of  filling  vacancies 
when  they  should  occur.  In  visiting  one  of  these 
unemployed  families,  I  saw  a  fine-looking,  capa- 
ble young  man,  who  had  been  idle  for  months. 
His  name  was  on  the  list  at  one  of  the  principal 
mills,  but  there  were  twenty-eight  names  before 
his,  and  it  was  not  probable  that  his  turn  would 
ever  come.  This  young  man  bears  a  well-known 
name,  and  his  ancestors  have  lived  in  the  State 
more  than  two  hundred  years.  The  presence  of  so 
large  a  number  of  superfluous  hands  in  any  place 
is  a  matter  of  grave  importance.  There  were  too 
many  laborers  there  already,  but  every  day  there 
were  new  arrivals  from  other  manufacturing  towns. 
Some,  on  learning  that  the  mills  were  crowded, 
resumed   their  quest  in  new  directions.     Others 


190  STUDY  OF  A 

had  not  means  to  go  farther,  and  remained  to 
swell  the  number  of  the  unemployed  and  discon- 
tented. Is  it  impossible  to  devise  some  plan  which 
would  prevent  this  migration  of  crowds  of  labor- 
ers to  places  where  there  is  no  demand  for  labor 
and  no  prospect  of  their  finding  employment  ? 
We  already  map  the  course  of  the  winds  and  the 
state  of  the  weather  for  the  whole  country  each 
day.  Would  it  be  much  more  difficult  to  map  the 
state  of  the  labor  market  for  the  whole  country 
every  week  or  every  month,  or  less  valuable  in  its 
results?  The  impotence  of  society  in  the  presence 
of  such  evils  is  more  apparent  than  real. 

I  found  several  large  Catholic  temperance  socie- 
ties among  the  mill  people.  They  were  working 
vigorously  and  with  excellent  effect.  The  Catho- 
lic Church  is  doing  more  than  any  other,  I  think, 
for  the  moral  guidance  and  improvement  of  the 
operatives.  The  Methodist  Church  comes  next, 
and  its  work  is  important  and  salutary.  I  saw 
evidences,  now  and  then,  among  the  young  Meth- 
odist converts,  of  strong  sectarian  feeling,  a  dispo- 
sition to  employ  social  pressure  as  a  means  of  in- 
creasing the  influence  of  the  church.  As  this  was, 
under  the  circumstances,  a  sign  of  earnestness  and 
vitality,  it  was  a  less  evil  than  indifference.  The 
Baptist  Church  has  also  a  considerable  share  in 
the  religious  culture  of  the  mill  people  ;  and  it  is 
probable  that  other  religious  bodies,  besides  those 
which  I  have  named,  are  at  work  with  noticeable 
energy  and  success  among  the  operatives,  but  I 


NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.        191 

had  no  opportunity  of  observing  their  activities. 
The  Unitarian  pastor  informs  me  that  his  church 
has  some  influence  among  the  young  mill  people, 
*'  but  it  reaches  very  few,  as  you  might  naturally 
expect  it  would.  It  is  not  fitted  to  their  appre- 
ciation, nor,  perhaps,  to  their  wants."  He  adds, 
"  Being  brought  little  into  contact  with  the  opera- 
tive class,  I  can  in  general  speak  only  from  hearsay 
in  regard  to  them,  and  therefore  should  not  pre- 
sume to  give  an  opinion  to  one  who  is  searching 
for  facts." 

Many  of  the  older  operatives,  especially  among 
the  English,  Scotch,  and  Americans,  are  strongly 
influenced  by  what  is  called  modern  scientific 
thought,  and  have  come  to  regard  religion  as 
something  outgrown  and  antiquated  for  all  intel- 
ligent persons,  but  still  useful  and  necessary  for 
the  ignorant  and  inferior  classes,  —  the  common 
people.  The  strongest  separative  and  unfraternal 
influence  which  I  have  encountered  or  observed 
in  American  life  and  thought  is  this  tendency  of 
*'  scientific  thought  "  to  produce  a  feeling  of  con- 
tempt for  those  who  do  not  share  it,  —  for  "  the 
unenlightened  masses." 

Several  of  the  mill  corporations  of  this  city  are 
embarrassed  by  indebtedness  out  of  all  propor- 
tion to  their  financial  strength  or  available  assets. 
Some  of  them  have  recently  been  forced  to  sus- 
pend payment,  and  it  is  probable  that  others  will 
soon  have  a  similar  experience.  These  difficulties 
have  been  caused  in  part  by  embezzlements  and 


192  STUDY  OF  A 

defalcations,  of  which  the  city  has  had  its  share, 
within  a  few  years,  in  common  with  most  other 
places  in  our  country  ;  but  the  popular  judgment 
attributes  far  too  large  a  proportion  of  the  finan- 
cial troubles  of  the  mills  to  this  source.  Most  of 
them  have  resulted  from  the  effects  upon  business 
and  industry  produced  by  our  civil  war,  and  from 
the  peculiar  intellectual  and  psychological  condi- 
tions which  prevailed  among  our  people  for  a  few 
years  after  that  convulsion.  Usually  these  evils 
or  embarrassments  are  the  result  of  false  or  erro- 
neous thinking.  There  was  too  much  money  in- 
vested in  machinery  for  the  manufacture  of  cotton 
goods,  more  than  was  required  for  all  the  busi- 
ness that  could  be  done.  More  mills  were  built 
and  equipped  than  could  be  employed  with  profit. 
These  excessive  and  abnormal  investments  of  cap- 
ital in  a  particular  branch  of  business  were  made 
because  capitalists  and  manufacturers  depended 
upon  imaginary  markets,  upon  a  demand  for  cot- 
ton goods  which  was  supposed  to  be  practically 
unlimited. 

The  labor  reformers  insist  that  there  can  be 
no  overproduction  while  any  human  want  remains 
unsupplied.  This  is  pure  sentimentalism,  worthy 
of  the  political  economy  of  Rousseau,  and  has  no 
scientific  or  practical  quality  whatever.  What  is 
more  to  be  regretted  is,  that  many  of  the  writers 
of  our  time  who  are  trying  to  aid  the  develop- 
ment of  rational  ideas  on  these  subjects  are  them- 
selves influenced,  and  much  of  their  work  is  viti- 


NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.        193 

ated,  by  the  same  illusions  which  have  made  the 
sentimentalists  their  prey.  When  we  declare,  in 
poems,  sermons,  and  optimistic  essays,  that  men 
everywhere  should  be  able  to  possess  and  enjoy 
whatever  can  add  to  the  comfort,  refinement,  and 
happiness  of  life,  it  has  a  delightfully  generous 
and  philanthropic  sound,  and  we  are  disposed  to 
feel  that  we  have  done  something  to  hasten  "  the 
good  time  coming."  But  the  simple  fact,  of  in- 
expugnable strength,  upon  which  the  whole  mat- 
ter depends  in  actual  business  is  that  overproduc- 
tion occurs  whenever  a  manufacturer  produces  so 
many  more  goods  than  he  can  sell  that  the  amount 
left  upon  his  hands  absorbs  the  profits  of  his  busi- 
ness, or  such  a  proportion  of  the  profits  as  gradu- 
ally to  impair  and  lessen  his  productive  capital. 
Men  do  not  manufacture  cotton  cloth,  or  grow 
com  and  wheat,  or  make  newspapers,  from  mo- 
tives of  generosity  or  sentimental  philanthropy. 
They  produce  all  these  articles  to  sell  them  ;  and 
fraternal  justice  to  the  laborers  employed,  and  the 
use  of  whatever  means  can  be  applied  for  their 
education,  will  give  increasing  productiveness, 
security,  and  permanence  to  all  these  branches  of 
industry.  But  it  will  not  do  to  make  any  kind  of 
goods  merely  because  people  ought  to  have  them. 
We  might  insist  that  life  must  be  a  condition  of 
squalid  misery  in  every  family  where  there  is  not 
a  seven-octave  piano ;  but  the  manufacturer  who 
should  therefore  undertake  to  make  pianos  for  all 
who  do  not  now  possess  them  would  soon  be  in  a 

13 


194  STUDY  OF  A 

position  to  give  lessons  to  our  political  economists 
on  the  real  nature  of  overproduction.  It  is  not 
true  philanthropy  to  employ  men  to  make  goods 
which  cannot  be  sold.  To  do  so  must  always  result 
in  the  destruction  of  capital  and  the  injury  of  the 
laborer.  Of  course,  there  are  chances  of  loss  by 
the  production  of  unsalable  goods  which  cannot 
be  foreseen,  but  this  only  makes  all  possible  fore- 
sight the  more  necessary.  We  have  built  many 
mills  and  bought  much  costly  machinery  for  the 
manufacture  of  cotton  and  iron  goods  which  no- 
body would  buy.  Some  of  these  enterprises  have 
already  come  to  an  end  in  necessary  ruin.  Others 
are  deferring  their  fate  by  adding  to  an  indebt- 
edness which  is  already  greater  than  the  present 
value  of  the  entire  property  or  investment.  Much 
of  the  capital  thus  invested  is  lost,  and  can  never 
be  recovered  by  any  possible  skill  or  ingenuity. 

My  friend  the  editor  of.  the  labor-reform  news- 
paper holds  that  the  best  means  for  securing  the 
rights  of  the  laboring  people,  and  obtaining  a  just 
remuneration  for  their  labor,  is  the  multiplication 
of  their  wants  ;  that  is,  they  should  be  taught  to 
live  more  and  more  expensively.  He  says  that 
civilization  consists  in  this  constant  increase  in 
the  number  of  the  wants  of  human  beings,  and 
that  we  must  encourage  the  working-people  to  de- 
mand and  use  so  many  things  as  necessaries  of 
life  for  them  that  employers  will  be  compelled  to 
give  them  higher  wages.  But  I  think  that  all  the 
facts  which  have  any  relation  to  the  subject  indi- 


NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.        195 

cate  that  this  particular  element  or  tendency  of 
civilization  has  already  an  excessive  development, 
and  that  most  persons  in  this  country  have  already 
more  wants  than  can  possibly  be  satisfied.  It 
would  tend  to  greater  clearness  of  thinking  if 
people  would  remember  that  there  is  no  evidence 
of  any  provision  in  the  nature  of  things  which  as- 
sures us  the  possession  of  everything  we  may  want. 
It  does  not  appear  that  the  earth  contains  mate- 
rials for  unlimited  wealth,  or  that  it  will  ever  be 
possible  for  everybody  to  be  rich  and  live  in  lux- 
ury. The  earth  does  contain  materials  for  sub- 
sistence for  human  beings,  as  long  as  there  are 
not  too  many  of  them.  But  the  overproduction  of 
human  beings  is  a  frequently  recurring  fact  in  the 
history  of  the  race.  It  is  a  possibility  in  nearly 
all  civilized  countries,  and  though  it  may  not  re- 
quire attention  here  for  a  long  time  to  come,  it  is 
certain  that  its  recognition  is  already  necessary  in 
all  systematic  treatment  of  the  chief  subjects  con- 
nected with  political  economy  and  national  wel- 
fare. 

I  believe  the  labor  reformers  are  in  error  in 
thinking  that  the  continued  and  indefinite  reduc- 
tion of  the  hours  of  labor  would  be  a  benefit  to 
the  working-people ;  but  I  am  aware  that  they 
have  the  support,  in  this  view  of  the  matter,  of 
nearly  all  the  political  economists  of  every  school. 
Most  writers  upon  the  subject  eulogize  the  effect 
of  labor-saving  machinery  upon  the  interests  of 
the  workingman,  affirming  that  any  inconvenience 


196  STUDY  OF  A 

resulting  from  it  is  but  temporary,  and  that  the 
permanent  effects  are  necessarily  beneficial.  It  is 
constantly  assumed,  as  if  it  were  an  indisputable 
certainty,  that  the  less  men  have  to  work  the  bet- 
ter for  them.  I  cannot  discover  any  necessity  or 
provision  in  the  nature  of  things  which  renders  it 
thus  certain  that  all  devices  and  inventions  which 
result  in  dispensing  with  human  labor  are  to  work 
advantage  to  mankind.  It  is  time  to  challenge 
this  assumption.  It  is  entirely  a  question  of  fact, 
and  a  priori  reasoning  is  here  out  of  place.  The 
most  positive  proof  that  labor-saving  machinery  is 
beneficial  up  to  some  certain  point  or  degree  of 
development  and  application  cannot  be  safely  ac- 
cepted as  evidence  that  its  development  and  ap- 
plication can  be  profitably  extended  without  limit. 
I  believe  that  for  most  men  more  than  eight 
hours'  work  per  day  is  required  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  physical,  mental,  and  moral  health.  I 
think  that  for  most  men,  including  operatives, 
mechanics,  farmers,  and  clergymen,  more  than 
eight  hours'  labor  per  day  is  necessary,  in  order 
to  keep  down  and  utilize  the  forces  of  the  animal 
nature  and  passions.  I  believe  that  if  improve- 
ments in  machinery  should  discharge  men  from 
the  necessity  of  laboring  more  than  six  hours  a 
day,  society  would  rot  in  measureless  and  fatal 
animalism.  I  have  worked  more  than  ten  hours 
per  day  during  most  of  my  life,  and  believe  it  is 
best  for  us  all  to  be  compelled  to  work.  It  would 
be  well,  I  think,  if  we  could  make  it  impossible 


NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.        197 

for  an  idler  to  live  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Re- 
ligious teachers  are  not  without  responsibility  for 
having  taught  that  the  necessity  of  labor  is  a 
curse.  The  world  owes  most  of  its  growth  hitherto 
to  men  who  tried  to  do  as  much  work  as  they 
could.  Its  debt  is  small  to  the  men  who  wished 
to  do  as  little  as  possible. 

The  principal  thing  required  in  connection  with 
these  interests  of  our  national  life  is,  I  think,  that 
the  operatives  and  other  working-people  shall 
have  a  better  education,  —  an  education  which 
shall  include  some  more  adequate  safeguards  or 
defenses  against  illusion  than  are  provided  by  the 
methods  of  culture  and  training  now  in  common 
use  in  this  country.  As  things  are,  it  can  scarcely 
be  said  that  any  effort  is  made  to  teach  the  work- 
ing-people anything  regarding  their  duties,  rights, 
and  interests  as  citizens,  as  Americans,  except  by 
the  churches  and  the  labor  reformers.  As  religion 
is  at  present  usually  understood  by  its  teachers  in 
this  country,  it  does  not  habitually  give  great 
prominence  or  emphasis  to  the  cultivation  of  feel- 
ings of  attachment,  responsibility,  and  obligation 
to  our  country.  It  is  commonly  regarded  as  deal- 
ing with  men  only  as  individuals,  and  as  accom- 
plishing the  elevation  of  society  by  improving  the 
character  of  the  units  of  which  it  is  composed. 
Few,  even  of  our  best  people,  have  now  any  vital 
feeling  or  sense  of  nationality,  of  our  position  and 
duties  as  Americans.  Nor  have  I  been  able  to  find 
anywhere  a  clear  exposition  of  the  claims  which 


198  STUDY  OF  A 

our  country  has  upon  us  all,  of  any  service  which 
the  nation  rightly  demands  of  its  children,  except 
what  is  required  in  time  of  war. 

I  think  the  time  will  come  (and  should  come 
soon)  when  the  preparation  and  supply  of  suita- 
ble reading  matter,  as  an  instrument  for  the  edu- 
cation and  guidance  of  the  working-people,  will 
be  regarded  as  a  necessary  part  of  the  equipment 
of  the  manufacturers  in  a  town  like  this.  It  is 
so  now,  but  the  prevailing  optimism,  being  essen- 
tially unintelligent,  and  therefore  wanting  in  flex- 
ibility, is  not  yet  aware  of  the  new  conditions  and 
tendencies  in  our  industrial,  social,  and  national 
life.  The  capitalists,  manufacturers,  and  cultivated 
people  of  every  town  where  there  are  one  thousand 
operatives  should  unite  in  the  publication  of  a 
small,  low-priced  newspaper  for  circulation  among 
the  working-people,  —  a  paper  conducted  by  some 
one  who  understands  that  the  elements  and  tend- 
encies of  our  national  life  cannot  be  adequately 
dealt  with  by  the  subjective  method  which  most 
of  our  teachers  now  employ  ;  by  a  man  who  sees 
clearly  that  the  knowledge  and  recognition  of  the 
objective  facts  of  human  experience  supply  the 
only  sufficient  basis  for  wise  action. 

The  use  of  such  means  for  the  education  and 
guidance  of  the  working-people  would  cost  far  less, 
in  money  even,  than  the  present  plan  of  letting 
things  take  their  course.  The  confident  expecta- 
tion that  an  improvement  or  revival  of  business 
will  soothe  the  discontent  of  the  working  classes, 


NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.        199 

and  relieve  the  country  from  anxiety  regarding 
their  action,  which  has  become  general  within  the 
last  few  months  is,  in  part,  the  result  of  a  hasty 
and  superficial  judgment  of  the  facts  of  the  time. 
There  are  many  workingmen  and  teachers  of 
workingmen  in  this  country,  believing  in  the 
absolute  sovereignty  of  the  laboring  classes,  who 
would  not  be  rendered  less  active  or  determined 
in  their  campaign  against  the  existing  order  of 
things  by  any  possible  degree  of  industrial  pros- 
perity. They  believe  in  a  different  order  of  so- 
ciety, and  hope  to  organize  the  wage  laborers  of 
the  United  States,  and  unite  them  in  a  persistent 
endeavor  to  modify  the  existing  social  and  politi- 
cal order.  They  have  more  impulse  and  endur- 
ance than  most  of  the  supporters  of  our  existing 
civilization,  and  also  a  better  understanding  of 
the  necessity  of  adapting  means  to  ends.  They 
have  also  a  measure  of  truth  on  their  side,  for  the 
existing  order  and  civilization  cannot  be  defended 
as  complete,  or  wholly  just;  they  need  improve- 
ment. 

I  wish  to  deal  gently  with  the  impenetrable 
inapprehension  which  thinks  it  a  sufficient  an- 
swer to  all  such  pleas  for  an  increase  of  activity 
on  the  part  of  cultivated  people  to  say  that  the 
ignorant  and  visionary  schemers  who  would  like 
to  overthrow  our  institutions  can  never  succeed. 
Sarcasm  here  would  be  a  waste  of  force.  But 
intelligence  can  understand  that  some  things  short 
of  absolute  ruin  are  still  so  undesirable  and  in- 


200  STUDY  OF  A 

jurious  that  it  is  worth  while  to  try  to  prevent 
them.  The  force  by  which  the  world  has  chiefly 
grown  hitherto  is  the  love  of  excellence  for  its 
own  sake,  the  feeling  of  obligation  to  try  to  make 
things  better,  to  remedy  injustice,  and  to  remove 
hurtful,  enslaving  ignorance  whenever  we  can  do 
so.  But  it  is  to  be  confessed  that  these  are  con- 
siderations of  little  weight  with  the  optimism  of 
our  time. 

It  is  not  enough  that  people  who  have  money 
and  culture  pay  the  operatives  their  wages.  That 
is  not  all  that  justice  requires.  It  is  my  belief 
that,  in  the  city  of  which  I  have  here  written, 
the  manufacturers  were  paying  the  laborers,  at 
the  time  of  my  visit,  all  that  they  could  pay,  and 
that  in  some  cases  their  wages  absorbed  the  en- 
tire profits  of  the  business.  But  the  working- 
people  are  ignorant,  and  they  are  not  taught  as 
they  should  be.  They  are  among  the  most  valu- 
able and  indispensable  of  all  the  children  of  our 
country.  Our  national  industry  and  prosperity 
would  be  impossible  without  them.  Their  life  is 
at  best  rather  hard  and  uninviting,  with  little 
room  or  means  for  the  ameliorating,  refining,  and 
sustaining  influences  which  vary  and  brighten  life 
for  many  others.  There  is  far  too  little  fraternal 
interest  in  them,  —  too  little  disposition  to  share 
their  burdens,  and  to  help  them  to  make  the 
best  of  their  life  and  of  themselves  that  its  in- 
evitable conditions  will  allow.  We  do  not  know 
as  much  about  them  as  we  should.     Most  people 


NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN.        201 

think  and  care  very  little  about  the  operatives, 
except  when  they  threaten  to  make  trouble.  It 
is  not  safe  or  wise  to  allow  so  large  a  class  to  be 
so  far  alien  and  separate  from  the  influences  and 
spirit  of  our  national  life.  I  do  not  think  the 
mill  people  are,  as  a  class,  inferior  in  morality,  in 
the  ordinary  sense  of  that  word,  to  any  equally 
numerous  chvss  in  this  country.  On  the  contrary, 
I  believe  they  are  superior  in  this  respect  to  any 
class  of  men  and  women  who  do  not  work. 

We  ought  to  know  more  about  this  sort  of  peo- 
ple, about  their  circumstances,  their  ways  of  living, 
their  thought,  and  the  tendencies  and  effects  of 
such  a  life  as  theirs  upon  character  and  civiliza- 
tion. As  things  are,  there  is  nobody  to  speak  for 
them.  We  should  know  more  about  what  they 
do  with  their  wages  ;  how  much  they  are  able  to 
save,  and  to  what  extent  they  have  the  disposition 
to  save  anything  from  their  earnings.  I  was  very 
desirous  to  learn  soraefehing  of  this  last  feature  of 
their  life  in  the  city  herein  described ;  but  al- 
though I  visited  all  the  savings-banks,  and  met 
everywhere  gentlemen  desirous  of  assisting  me, 
nobody,  so  far  as  I  could  leam,  had  any  knowl- 
edge of  the  amount  of  deposits  by  operatives  in 
the  savings-banks  of  the  city.  The  matter  had 
once  been  "  looked  up "  as  an  electioneering 
measure,  but  the  statistics  had  not  been  preserved. 
The  mill  owners  thought  the  amount  was  very 
large,  while  the  labor  reformers,  as  we  have  seen, 
believed  it  was  "  practically  nothing." 


202       A  NEW  ENGLAND  FACTORY  TOWN. 

I  received  the  utmost  courtesy  and  kindness 
from  all  whom  I  met,  without  exception.  In 
these  qualities  the  city  is  not  surpassed  by  any 
place  I  have  ever  visited.  I  am  indited  to  many 
persons  there  for  invaluable  assistance,  and  am 
most  grateful  to  some  who  will  never  see  what  I 
have  written. 


PREACHING. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  preaching  is  something 
in  which  perfection  is  not  attainable.  The  high- 
est excellence  in  this  work  is  but  an  approxima- 
tion. The  object  of  preaching,  expressed  in  the 
largest  way,  is  the  formation,  culture,  and  devel- 
opment of  human  character,  and  the  guidance  of 
conduct  or  life,  in  accordance  with  the  laws,  re- 
quirements, and  obligations  of  our  moral  nature  or 
being.  With  this  in  view  as  the  end,  preaching 
employs,  as  an  instrument  or  means,  the  presenta- 
tion of  religious  truth  and  thought,  especially  — 
in  Christian  teaching  —  the  truths  and  doctrines 
of  Christianity ;  the  chief  source  whence  these 
are  to  be  drawn  being  the  Scriptures  of  the  New 
Testament,  with  illustrations  and  helps  from  the 
Hebrew  sacred  books,  and  from  the  religious  his- 
tory and  experience  of  mankind. 

The  essential  or  fundamental  principles  and 
truths  of  Christianity  are  not  presented  or  ex- 
pressed in  the  New  Testament  in  the  form  of 
exact,  definite,  direct  propositions,  so  as  to  be 
apprehended  with  equal  readiness,  success,  and 
perfection  by  minds  of  every  character  ;  but  these 
principles  belong  to  a  class  of  ideas  which  in  some 


204  PREACHING. 

measure  depend  for  their  apprehension  upon  moral 
and  mental  conditions,  upon  states  of  the  will,  the 
heart,  or  the  moral  character.  In  the  phrase  of 
the  New  Testament,  they  are  spiritual  truths  or 
principles,  and  must  be  spiiitually  discerned  or 
understood.  These  principles  of  Christianity  are 
in  this  respect  like  most  of  the  ideas  which  are 
conveyed  in  poetry  and  by  the  forms  of  otlier 
kinds  of  art ;  that  is,  for  their  adequate  reception 
a  certain  preparation  in  the  quality  or  attitude  of 
the  mind,  and  in  the  character  of  the  person,  is 
necessary. 

Ideas  and  truths  connected  with  almost  all  sub- 
jects of  serious  human  interest  may  be  appropri- 
ately employed  in  preaching.  Innumerable  facts 
of  science  in  all  its  great  departments  may  be 
rightly  used  in  sermons,  when  such  facts  and 
truths  are  dominated  and  subordinated  by  a  spir- 
itual or  religious  purpose.  Anything  which  can 
be  made  to  serve  a  spiritual  end  may  be  of  use, 
but  all  the  elements  and  materials  employed  in 
preaching  should  be  fused  by  a  central,  control- 
ling, religious  idea  and  motive.  This  spiritual  or 
religious  idea  is  of  course  complex.  On  one  side 
it  has,  of  necessity,  an  intellectual  character ;  that 
is,  in  so  far  as  it  consists  of  thought,  or  is  ex- 
pressed in  the  form  and  by  the  terms  of  thought. 
But  preaching,  when  rightly  considered  and  per- 
formed, is  not  chiefly  intellectual,  but  religious,  or 
spiritual;  that  is,  it  concerns  itself  primarily  and 
principally  with  those  faculties   of   man's   being 


PREACHING.  205 

which  find  expression  in  reverence,  trust,  and  obe- 
dience. Preaching  deals  with  the  will,  and  with 
action  or  conduct,  and  it  addresses  the  intellectual 
faculties  for  the  sake  of  these  objects.  But  man's 
being  or  nature  is  a  unit,  and  if  the  culture  of  the 
intellect  is  neglected,  the  religious  character  be- 
comes ill  balanced,  morbid,  and  unwholesome. 
The  evils  and  dangers  resulting  from  excessive 
development  of  the  emotional  element  in  religion, 
though  less  portentous  now  than  in  other  ages, 
still  require  examination,  and  render  necessary 
whatever  safeguards  knowledge  and  foresight  can 
supply. 

Let  us  endeavor  to  see  clearly  some  of  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  spiritual  or  religious  idea.  One 
of  its  essential  qualities  is  that  it  always  tran- 
scends the  sphere  of  the  transient,  special,  or  par- 
ticular, and  passes  into  the  region  of  the  perma- 
next  and  universal.  All  teaching  which  is  truly 
spiritual  or  religious  maintains  a  constant  and  di- 
rect relation  with  a  moral  order  which  is  univer- 
sal and  eternal.  This  order  is  always  recognized 
or  the  belief  in  its  existence  is  necessarily  implied. 
The  end,  object,  or  purpose  of  all  preaching  or 
religious  teaching  is  the  production,  development, 
or  cultivation  of  obedience  to  the  requirements  of 
this  moral  order,  of  trust  in  its  sovereign  ade- 
quacy, and  of  harmony  and  conformity  with  it. 
The  personality  or  character  of  man  as  a  moral 
being  stands  within  this  moral  order,  and  is  re- 
lated to  it.     This  order  existed  before  he  began 


206  PREACHING. 

to  be,  and  he  is  in  some  sense  produced  by  it,  and 
is  a  part  of  it.  It  is  a  peculiarity  of  man's  being 
and  of  his  relations  to  this  order  that  he  learns 
progressively  of  its  existence,  nature,  and  require- 
ments ;  that  he  can  never  know  or  comprehend  it 
perfectly,  or  attain  to  a  complete  or  finished  har- 
mony or  unity  with  it.  His  nature  possesses  or 
includes  the  capability  of  endless  approximation 
or  advance  toward  a  perfection  of  vital  harmony 
and  oneness  with  this  order,  which  is  never  to  be 
completely  attained,  but  which  constitutes,  in 
every  stage  of  his  progress,  a  most  powerful  in- 
centive, inspiration,  and  ideal. 

The  preacher's  faculties  being  finite,  and  their 
work  necessarily  imperfect,  it  constantly  results 
that  he  does  not  adequately  distinguish  between 
what  is  special,  transient,  and  subordinate,  and 
what  is  universal,  permanent,  and  supreme.  His 
work  is  here  so  much  a  matter  of  relative  or  com- 
parative emphasis,  its  quality  depends  so  largely 
upon  the  character,  insight,  and  genius  of  the  man 
himself,  that  no  adequate  rules  or  directions  for  its 
right  performance  can  be  given.  Some  men  have 
minds  so  mechanical  and  unspiritual  that  it  is  im- 
possible for  them  ever  to  learn  to  preach  usefully, 
and  it  may  be  conceded  that  some  representatives 
of  this  class  have  in  almost  every  age  found  their 
way  into  the  pulpit. 

One  of  the  chief  dangers  or  defects  of  preach- 
ing in  our  time,  in  this  country  at  least,  is  its  ten- 
dency to  become  predominantly  intellectual,  to 


PREACHING.  207 

deal  with  all  its  materials  by  intellectual  methods. 
The  facts,  truths,  principles,  and  ideas  employed 
and  illustrated  in  American  preaching  to-day  be- 
long, in  great  part,  to  the  domain  of  the  intellect, 
and  are  of  a  nature  to  stimulate  chiefly  the  intel- 
lectual faculties,  and  to  be  apprehended  by  them. 
They  are  not  marshaled  by  a  spiritual  purpose  to 
spiritual  ends,  are  not  fused  or  assimilated  by  any 
power  of  adequate  spiritual  vitality.  Preaching 
of  this  intellectual  kind  consists  largely  of  argu- 
ment and  discussion,  and  it  therefore  necessarily 
produces  and  cultivates  chiefly  activity  of  the  in- 
tellectual faculties  ;  that  is,  a  mental  condition  or 
attitude  of  a  critical  or  questioning  character,  a 
spirit  of  doubt.  The  religious  spirit  is  essentially 
the  spirit  of  trust  and  of  obedience.  The  special 
tendencies  and  developments  of  thought  which 
characterize  our  own  age  have  been,  in  too  great 
measure,  reproduced  in  the  preaching  of  the  time. 
We  have  had  too  much  of  "preaching  for  the 
times ; "  that  is,  the  preaching  has  dealt  too 
largely  with  things  which  are  recent  and  tran- 
sient, with  the  superficial  and  particular  rather 
than  with  the  vital,  permanent,  and  universal. 

The  deepest  and  highest  powers  of  the  nature 
of  man  respond  only  to  spiritual  or  universal  in- 
fluences and  ideas.  Nothing  is  potent  or  vital 
enough  to  summon  his  faculties  to  their  highest 
and  best  activity  except  a  perception  or  revelation 
of  his  relations  to  the  universal  order,  and  of  the 
duties  proceeding  from  and  depending  upon  these 


208  PREACHING. 

relations.  It  is  wholesome  and  good  for  man  — 
it  feeds  the  very  sources  of  his  life  —  to  stand 
awed  before  the  majesty  and  beauty  of  the  moral 
order  of  the  universe  and  the  strength  of  its  eter- 
nal laws.  It  is  not  possible  that  his  nature  should 
be  so  expanded,  stimulated,  and  purified,  or  raised 
to  such  perfection  of  vitality  and  action,  by  any 
other  influence.  To  produce  and  develop  this  per- 
ception is  one  of  the  most  important  objects  of 
preaching  ;  but  it  is  not  attained  by  the  method 
of  treating  religion  chiefly  as  a  matter  of  knowl- 
edge, as  something  to  be  explained  and  under- 
stood, a  theory  or  system  of  thought,  to  be  de- 
fended by  argument  and  sustained  by  refuting 
objections. 

There  is  much  preaching  in  this  country  which 
is  a  potent  and  valuable  means  of  intellectual  cult- 
ure, but  which  has  little  of  the  religious  or  spir- 
itual quality  which  should  characterize  Christian 
preaching.  Many  of  the  most  intelligent,  active, 
and  influential  ministers  have  for  several  years  de- 
voted much  attention  to  the  peculiar  literature  of 
modern  science ;  and  they  have  reported  to  their 
hearers  the  speculations  and  theories  of  the  men 
who  write  about  science  for  the  magazines  and  re- 
views, regarding  subjects  which  are  most  closely 
and  vitally  connected  with  the  religious  and  theo- 
logical beliefs  belonging  to  Christianity,  and  with 
the  principles,  laws,  sanctions,  and  obligations  of 
Christian  practice  and  character.  The  dissolving 
or  disintegrating  tendencies  of   modern  scientific 


PREACHING.  209 

thought  have  thus  been  to  a  great  extent  combined 
with  the  preaching  of  the  time,  and  so  conveyed 
into  the  minds  of  the  people  who  make  up  the 
churches  of  this  counti-y.  Multitjjdes  have  in  this 
way  been  made  acquainted  with  the  skeptical  ele- 
ments and  tendencies  of  the  thought  of  the  age, 
and  have  been  brought  to  feel  the  force  of  the  ob- 
jections which  materialism  has  recently  urged 
against  the  doctrines  of  Christianity.  In  many 
cases  the  scientific,  skeptical,  and  critical  ideas 
thus  presented  have  had  more  force  with  the  hear- 
ers than  the  answers  or  refutations  brought  for- 
ward by  the  preacher. 

Many  of  these  scientific  objections  to  the  doc- 
trines of  Christianity  have  received  far  more  at- 
tention than  is  rightly  their  due  on  any  ground 
of  intrinsic  weight,  value,  or  respectability ;  and 
many  of  the  ministers  of  the  country  have  thus  as- 
sisted in  the  propagation  of  skeptical  notions  to  an 
extent  which  has  noticeably  influenced  the  thought 
of  the  people.  Many  persons  have  been  affected 
by  negative  and  disintegrating  ideas  with  which 
they  would  have  had  little  acquaintance  but  for 
the  carefulness  and  iteration  with  which  these 
opinions  have  been  presented  in  the  preaching  of 
the  time.  It  is  possible  to  have  too  much  discus- 
sion in  preaching.  Hearers  are  convinced  and 
confirmed,  strengthened  and  established,  rather  by 
the  thoroughness  and  strength  of  the  minister's 
own  beliefs,  by  their  perception  of  the  confidence 
u 


210  -         PREACHING. 

and  certainty  which  he  feels,  than  by  his  presen- 
tation of  arguments  against  skepticism. 

It  is  always  necessary  to  distinguish  between 
what  is  superficpl  and  of  slight  significance  in  the 
thought  of  the  time,  and  what  belongs  to  the  class 
of  forces  and  ideas  which  work  deeply  and  widely 
in  the  mind  of  an  age,  gradually  producing  im- 
portant changes  in  opinion,  and  so,  at  length, 
modifying  the  structure  of  society  and  the  civili- 
zation of  nations  or  races.  I  suppose  we  must  say 
that  this  power  of  distinguishing  between  the  su- 
perficial and  insignificant  manifestations  of  popu- 
lar caprice  and  the  real  spirit,  thought,  and  voice 
of  the  age  is  something  which  cannot  be  taught, 
communicated,  or  learned  in  its  entirety  ;  but  all 
real  culture  assists  the  development  of  this  dis- 
criminating judgment  or  estimate  of  the  compai'a- 
tive  value  of  the  different  products  and  tendencies 
of  human  thought.  It  is  also  important  to  ob- 
serve that  the  study  of  history  and  acquaintance 
with  the  world's  best  literature  are  specially 
adapted  to  assist  the  formation  of  the  intellectual 
character  which  is  the  basis  of  such  judgment 
and  the  pledge  of  its  value. 

Christianity  properly  changes  front  from  time 
to  time,  to  meet  new  forms  of  evil  and  error  ;  and 
its  continued  existence  depends  upon  this  neces- 
sary flexibility.  What  changes  of  relative  em> 
phasis  in  Christian  teaching  and  practice  are  re- 
quired by  the  new  conditions  of  human  life  and 
its  environment  in  oar  age  is  an  important  ques- 


PREACHING.  211 

tion,  —  the  most  vital  and  momentous,  indeed, 
which  can  now  engage  the  thought  of  Americans 
in  connection  with  religious  subjects.  This  is  at 
once  the  real  issue  and  the  common  ground  be- 
tween the  conservative  and  the  modern  parties  in 
the  Christian  church.  One  party  emphasizes  the 
value  of  what  has  been  tried  and  has  done  good 
service  in  the  past ;  the  other  emphasizes  the  need 
of  new  weapons,  and  the  advantages  of  a  partial 
change  of  front.  Neither  party  has  clearly  de- 
fined its  own  ground  or  aims,  nor  have  the  leaders 
on  either  side  thought  it  necessary  to  understand 
the  position  of  those  from  whom  they  difiEer.  No- 
body seems  prepared,  as  yet,  for  any  thorough  ex- 
amination or  discussion  of  the  subject. 

It  is  especially  easy,  in  a  time  when  thought 
upon  religious  subjects  is  becoming  less  vital  and 
spiritual,  for  men  to  imagine  that  there  is  great 
value  in  the  use  of  terms  and  phrases  which  have 
lost  their  primary  significance  and  vitality,  even 
for  those  who  utter  them.  The  truths,  facts,  ex- 
periences, and  forms  of  thought  and  expression 
which  furnish  the  most  varied,  adequate,  and  val- 
uable illustrations  of  the  relations  between  man 
and  the  universal  order,  or  Supreme  Will,  which 
are  anywhere  accessible  to  the  preacher,  are  to  be 
found  in  the  Hebrew  and  Christian  Scriptures. 
But  the  forms  of  expression  used  in  these  books 
have  no  magical  value.  They  cannot  be  success- 
fully used  as  charms  or  spells.  Their  mechanical 
repetition   or  pronunciation  by  the  human  voice 


212  PREACHING. 

does  not  necessarily,  or  in  itself,  benefit  those  who 
hear.  The  use  of  phrases  drawn  from  these  high 
sources  is  helpful  and  tends  to  edification  only  if 
they  are  employed  appropriately,  and  in  connec- 
tions or  relations  in  which  they  have  actual  mean- 
ing, truth,  and  efficiency.  Many  preachers  with 
whom  I  am  acquainted,  even  among  those  of 
most  pronounced  rationalistic  tendencies,  often 
appear  to  think  there  is  great  value  in  the  mere 
repetition  of  Old  Testament  phrases  and  figures 
of  speech.  But  in  our  time  even  church  mem- 
bers read  the  Bible  so  little  that  such  expressions 
are  often  unintelligible,  and  tend  to  obscure  the 
thought  of  the  preacher  instead  of  illustrating  it. 

The  preacher  always  deals  most  successfully 
with  the  special  sins,  dangers,  temptations,  and 
evils  of  any  time  by  using,  as  the  chief  substance 
and  texture  of  his  teaching,  the  great  fundamental, 
permanent,  and  universal  principles  and  truths  of 
the  moral  nature  and  life  of  man,  as  they  are  il- 
lustrated in  human  experience  and  in  the  moral 
aspects  of  the  history  of  mankind.  He  may  safely 
trust  to  the  universal  nature  which  is  in  man  and 
over  him  to  make  nearly  all  necessary  special  ap- 
plications of  general  moral  pi-inciples  and  univer- 
sal truths.  It  is  rarely  best  to  give  very  elabo- 
rate treatment  to  such  themes  as  form  the  staple 
of  the  newspaper  writing  of  the  time,  or  the  prev- 
alent gossip  of  the  community.  Yet  the  neces- 
sary distinction  here  does  not  consist  so  much  in 
the  difference  of  the  subjects  presented  as  in  the 


PREACHING.  213 

spirit  and  manner  of  their  treatment.  Many 
things  can  be  profitably  used  as  incidental  illus- 
trations which  could  not  properly  be  employed  as 
the  chief  topics  or  substance  of  a  sermon.  A 
minister  of  my  acquaintance  was  once  preaching 
on  the  subject  of  truthfulness,  and  after  various 
illustrations  of  its  importance  in  practice,  and  of 
the  temptations  to  unveracity  in  modern  life,  he 
said,  "  It  is  not  open  to  a  member  of  this  church 
to  evade  the  payment  of  the  tax  on  dogs  by  any 
falsehood  or  equivocation  whatever."  He  passed 
at  once  to  other  topics,  but  this  sentence  produced 
important  changes  in  the  practice  of  the  citizens 
of  that  community,  and  in  the  amount  of  the  rev- 
enues of  the  town.  It  is  not  likely  that  the  effect 
would  have  been  So  salutary  if  my  friend  had  de- 
livered a  lecture  on  dogs,  with  interesting  facts  and 
illustrations  from  history  and  literature,  though 
such  a  lecture  would  not  have  been  greatly  unlike 
some  modern  sermons. 

One  of  the  special  dangers  and  defects  of 
preaching  in  this  country  is  connected  with  the 
popular  liking  for  oratory  in  the  pulpit,  the  de- 
mand for  what  is  called  eloquent  preaching.  The 
common  American  idea  of  pulpit  eloquence  is 
low  and  sensational.  It  means  chiefly  a  rapid  and 
emphatic  utterance  of  sonorous  sentences,  with 
something  extreme,  paradoxical,  and  violent  in 
the  thought  presented,  though  not  much  thought 
is  required.  People  demand  of  the  preacher  that 
he  shall  arouse  and  excite  them,  and  they  enjoy 


214  PREACHING. 

with  a  kind  of  voluptuousness  the  temporary  stim- 
ulus and  thrill  of  emotion  which  the  preaching 
causes.  It  results  from  the  laws  of  mental  action' 
that  preaching  of  this  kind  does  not  inspire  con- 
scientiousness, nor  tend  to  practical  moral  activity. 
It  necessarily  produces  and  fosters  mental  condi- 
tions which  are  extremely  unfavorable  to  spirit- 
uality of  character  and  life. 

This  appetite  for  eloquence,  working  with  other 
tendencies  of  the  age,  has  helped  to  make  the 
preaching  in  this  country  dramatic  and  entertain- 
ing, but,  in  large  measure,  unspiritual.  This,  I 
think,  can  be  rightly  regarded  only  as  a  calamity, 
a  tendency  opposed  to  the  interests  of  religion, 
adapted  to  weaken  and  subvert  it,  and  to  lead  the 
people  who  are  influenced  by  it  into  a  region 
where  religion  will  be  impossible  or  regarded  as 
unnecessary.  This  is  one  of  the  most  important 
among  the  unfavorable  tendencies  of  the  age.  It 
has  made  preaching  "  more  interesting  and  at- 
tractive to  the  masses,"  but  this  has  been  accom- 
plished by  sacrificing  much  that  is  essential  in  re- 
ligion itself. 

There  is  a  peculiar  peril  in  oratory  or  eloquence 
for  the  orator  himself,  and  few  of  the  idols  of  pop- 
ular taste  have  escaped  it.  This  is  the  tempta- 
tion to  say  things  which  will  arouse  and  excite 
people,  and  so  give  them  the  emotional  thrill 
which  they  require  the  orator  to  produce,  rather 
than  the  things  that  are  true,  and  that  would  tend 
to  acquaintance,  on  the  part  of  the  hearers,  with 


PREACEING.  215 

their  own  needs  and  duties,  and  to  a  more  rigid 
subjection  of  their  practice  to  the  laws  of  Chris- 
tian morality.  The  preacher's  own  taste  for  truth 
is  dulled,  and  his  power  of  perceiving  and  distin- 
guishing it  is  gradually  lost.  Seriouffness  declines, 
and  the  most  solemn  and  sacred  doctrines  and 
facts  of  Christianity  come  to  be  regarded  merely 
as  materials  for  oratorical  display.  An  enonnous 
egotism  disorders  all  the  preacher's  perceptions  of 
fitness  and  relation,  subverts  reverence,  and  eman- 
cipates him  from  moral  obligation.  His  hearers, 
on  their  part,  make  the  emotional  enjoyment 
which  they  experience  in  hearing  eloquent  preach- 
ing a  substitute  for  Christian  conduct  and  charac- 
ter. Exceptional  instances  of  this  kind  ai'e  chiefly 
interesting  and  significant  as  indications  of  gen- 
eral tendencies. 

The  requirements  of  the  people  regarding  the 
social  life  and  occupations  of  the  minister  form  a 
serious  hindrance  to  the  spirituality  and  useful- 
ness of  his  work.  His  work  demands,  more  than 
almost  any  other,  except,  perhaps,  that  of  poets 
and  artists,  periods  of  solitude,  of  silent  thought 
and  waiting,  of  receptive  communion  with  the 
universal  and  eternal  within  him  and  around  him. 
It  needs,  in  a  peculiar  degree,  a  free,  unfettered 
condition  of  his  faculties.  This  is  indispensable 
for  the  best  performance  of  his  work,  for  the  pro- 
duction of  the  higher  qualities  in  his  preaching. 
Many  men  have  been  able  to  enjoy  this  disengage- 
ment of  their  faculties,  this  freedom  for  devotion 


216  PREACHING. 

and  allegiance  to  the  Highest,  in  the  midst  of  af- 
fairs, conditions,  and  circumstances  which,  to  most 
observers,  appear  to  have  been  highly  unfavorable 
to  such  concentration  of  faculty.  But  only  the 
man  himself  can  ascertain  and  decide  what  are  the 
necessary  conditions  for  the  most  successful  per- 
formance of  his  work.  Yet  there  are  very  few 
persons  in  the  churches  of  this  country  who  ap- 
pear to  have  any  understanding  or  appreciation  of 
this  law  of  the  minister's  work.  The  people  with 
whom  the  preacher  lives  in  closest  relations  usu- 
ally think  they  know  much  better  than  he  how  he 
should  arrange  and  employ  his  time  during  the 
week  ;  and  the  popular  judgment  decides  that 
most  of  his  time  should  be  devoted  to  drinking 
tea  with  his  parishioners,  to  what  is  called  '^  going 
about  among  the  people,  and  making  himself  at 
home  with  them." 

The  history  of  Christianity  shows  that  the  min- 
istry has  never  possessed  great  power  or  author- 
ity, or  the  church  a  high  degree  of  spiritual  vital- 
ity, at  any  time  when  ministers  were  accustomed 
to  pass  a  great  portion  of  their  time  among  their 
people  in  ordinary  social  intercourse  with  them. 
It  is  one  of  the  features  of  the  life  of  our  time 
that  pastoral  visiting,  that  is,  short  calls  devoted 
to  conversation  upon  religious  subjects,  has  given 
place  to  ordinary  social  visiting  and  intercourse 
between  the  minister  and  his  people.  This  change 
is  closely  connected  with  important  features  and 
tendencies  of  the  religion  of  the  age.     It  has  had 


PREACHING.  217 

a  great  effect  apon  preaching  in  this  country. 
The  modern  practice  has  made  impossible,  in 
great  measure,  the  habit  of  solitary  study,  and 
has  thus  shorn  the  preaching  of  the  time  of  the 
peculiar  authority  and  impressiveness  which  be- 
long to  utterances  which  come  from  lonely  heights 
of  thought  and  experience. 

As  things  are  at  present,  the  minister's  hearers 
are  to  a  considerable  extent  already  familiar  with 
his  thought  before  they  meet  him  at  the  church. 
He  has  been  with  them  during  most  of  the  week, 
and  has  thus  had  little  time  for  thoughts  arising 
from  beyond  the  circle  of  pleasant,  worldly  conver- 
sation. I  concede  willingly  all  that  may  be  claimed 
for  the  influence  of  the  clergyman  in  thus  promot- 
ing culture  and  refinement  among  his  people,  and 
so  aiding  the  development  of  a  higher  civilization  ; 
but  I  wish  to  point  out  the  fact  that  the  minister 
has  in  this  way  lost  much  of  power  and  authority 
for  his  work  as  a  preacher,  and  it  is  this  work 
which  we  are  now  considering.  It  is  not  visiting 
among  the  poor  or  sick  that  injures  a  man's  power 
as  a  preacher,  but  the  modern  expectation  that  he 
shall  spend  most  of  his  time  among  the  agreeable 
people  of  his  parish,  who  live  comfortably  and 
like  to  be  entertained. 

The  preaching  of  the  time  in  this  country  is  as 
good  as  the  people  are  willing  to  hear.  Neither 
in  the  church  nor  out  of  it  is  there  any  consider- 
able demand  for  better  preaching.  Where  there 
is  most  intelligence  or  culture  the  chief  desire  in 


218  PREACHING. 

regard  to  preaching  is  that  it  shall  be  entertain- 
ing, and  thus  suited  to  attract  many  hearers  who 
will  help  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  church.  Un- 
der the  "  voluntary  system,"  as  it  is  called,  which 
pi-evails  here,  it  would  be  very  difficult  to  give  the 
people  any  kind  of  preaching  which  they  do  not 
want.  The  persons  who  need  to  be  taught, 
guided,  and  instructed  thus  fix  the  standard  and 
determine  almost  wholly  the  character  of  the 
teaching  which  they  are  to  receive.  This  is  an 
incidental  effect  of  the  dominion  of  the  masses, 
of  our  universal-suffrage  arrangement  of  society. 
In  very  few  of  the  churches  or  congregations  in 
this  country  can  there  be  any  continuous  or  ha- 
bitual religious  teaching  which  the  people  do  not 
approve.  The  standard,  or  ideal,  as  to  preaching 
is  usually  higher  among  ministers  than  among 
their  hearers,  and  many  clergymen  maintain  a 
constant  struggle  against  the  injurious  tendencies 
of  the  popular  taste,  and  try  to  create  in  the 
minds  of  their  hearers  an  appetite  for  the  higher 
and  more  spiritual  qualities  in  religious  teaching. 
But  the  pireaching  of  the  country,  like  nearly 
everything  else  in  our  national  life,  is  likely  to 
become  more  and  more  completely  representative 
of  the  culture,  taste,  morality,  and  entire  charac- 
ter of  the  people  who  compose  the  churches.  If 
this  is  the  tendency,  the  character  of  the  preach- 
ing will  not  thereby  be  elevated  or  improved. 

At  last,  everything  among  us  must  depend  upon 
the  average  or  aggregate  culture,  character,  and 


PREACHING.  219 

will  of  the  people.  They  are  the  real  source  of 
everything  in  our  national  life,  of  whatever  good 
we  can  hope  to  keep  or  establish  here,  and  of  all 
the  evils  which  injure  or  threaten  us.  Their  sov- 
ereignty has  been  commonly  regarded  as  having 
its  sphere  and  operation  in  political  affairs.  The 
ballot  is  esteemed  its  proper  symbol  and  expres- 
sion. It  is  time  for  us  to  recognize  the  fact  that 
under  this  sovereignty  of^the  people  everything  in 
the  life  and  character  of  our  nation,  its  institu- 
tions, religion,  morality,  culture,  and  civilization, 
are  dependent  upon  the  character,  development, 
and  will  of  the  people.  Our  people  are  not  yet 
prepared  or  disposed  to  permit  or  sustain  such 
preaching  as  is  needed  for  the  purification  and 
guidance  of  our  national  life,  and  the  growth  of  a 
higher  civilization. 

The  church  is  still  a  valuable  conservative  and 
vital  agency  in  our  national  life,  but  it  exhibits 
only  such  spirituality,  moral  illumination,  and 
earnestness  as  are  possessed  by  the  people  who 
compose  it ;  and  it  is  marked  by  all  that  is  de- 
fective in  their  culture  and  character.  Under  the 
voluntary  system,  preaching  in  this  country  is,  in 
fact  and  of  necessity,  almost  exactly  what  the 
people  who  have  money  wish  it  to  be.  Most  of 
the  preaching  needs  improvement.  Some  influ- 
ences which  our  national  interests  most  impera- 
tively require  should  naturally  come  from  this 
source.  They  are  not  now  supplied  by  any  agency 
whatever.     But  the  preaching  of  the  country  can 


220  PREACHING. 

be  improved,  so  as  to  make  it  more  valuable  to 
the  nation,  only  by  elevating  the  popular  taste 
through  an  advance  in  the  culture  of  the  more  in- 
telligent classes  of  our  people.  No  adequate  in- 
strumentalities for  effecting  such  an  advance  are 
yet  in  existence.  The  preachers  of  the  country 
could  do  much  to  prepare  the  way  for  a  better 
state  of  things  if  they  would  give  earnest  atten- 
tion to  the  facts,  conditions,  and  tendencies  of  our 
national  life,  but  the  popular  optimism  is  averse 
to  such  study  of  the  facts  of  the  time.  The  teach- 
ing of  the  Bible  in  regard  to  preaching,  especially 
its  marked  emphasis  of  the  idea  that  it  is  the 
business  of  the  preacher  to  proclaim  the  will  of 
God,  to  deliver  a  message  from  Him,  to  teach 
the  truth,  whether  men  wish  to  hear  it  or  not ; 
that  he  is  to  utter  whatever  his  ultimate  convic- 
tions of  duty  require  him  to  speak,  accepting 
whatever  of  suffering  or  loss  may  be  the  result,  — 
this  has  great  influence  upon  all  manly  and  sin- 
cere young  men  in  the  ministry.  It  inspires  them 
with  something  of  heroic  feeling,  and  still,  even 
in  our  time,  gives  to  this  profession  an  element 
of  solemnity,  an  ideal  quality,  and  a  culture  in 
elevated  sentiments  not  found  in  equal  degree  in 
other  professions  or  occupations,  except  perhaps 
among  artists.  But  it  soon  comes  to  seem  impos- 
sible, under  the  conditions  of  our  modern  life,  to 
obey  these  principles,  or  to  maintain  an  attitude 
in  any  wise  heroic,  except  in  personal  self-denial 
on  the  part  of  the  minister  for  the  sake  of  hia 


PREACHING.  221 

work,  and  in  the  endurance  of  life-long  pain  and 
regret  on  account  of  the  difficulty  of  keeping  the 
Bible  estimate  of  his  work  in  sight  even  as  an 
ideal.  It  would  soon  increase  the  vitality  of  re- 
ligion among  us  in  a  marked  degree,  and  greatly 
improve  our  national  life,  if  the  more  influential 
clergymen  would  unite  and  cooperate  in  develop- 
ing and  disseminating  scriptural  ideas  of  the 
moral  authority  of  the  pulpit,  and  its  rightful  free- 
dom from  popular  control. 

The  dangers  to  religion  in  our  time,  as  well  as 
to  the  moral  interests  of  our  country,  are  very 
grave  ;  but  it  is  for  the  present  nearly  impossible 
to  interest  Americans  in  anything  which  depends 
upon  the  operation  of  general  and  complex  influ- 
ences, or  far-reaching  tendencies.  Optimism  dis- 
courages effort  for  improvement.  It  is  a  great 
maker  of  phrases,  and  delights  in  announcing  that 
"  truth  and  right  must  triumph  in  the  end."  It 
refuses  to  regard  anything  that  may  occur  in  the 
mean  time  as  worthy  of  serious  attention.  Many 
are  anxious,  but  comfort  themselves  with  the  hope 
that  "  things  will  remain  about  as  they  are  "  in 
our  time,  and  that  those  who  come  after  us  may 
be  wise  enough  to  deal  with  the  increasing  diffi- 
culties of  the  next  age.  Nothing  seems  very  im- 
portant to  our  people  unless  it  is  of  the  nature  of 
a  catastrophe  ;  nothing  arouses  them  to  serious 
interest  but  the  belief  in  the  near  approach  of  a 
terrible  crisis.  There  is  little  love  of  excellence 
for  its  own  sake  among  us  at  present,  and  we  are 


222  PREACHING. 

generally  not  only  indisposed  to  earnest,  steady 
devotion  to  high  ideals,  but  we  are  almost  desti- 
tute of  respect,  veneration,  and  enthusiasm  for 
those  who  have,  in  other  times,  lived  in  high  and 
noble  ways.  One  chief  reason  why  the  heart  of 
the  age  is  not  more  potently  moved  by  the  central 
personage  of  the  New  Testament  story  is  the  fact 
that  men  have,  to  a  great  extent,  lost  the  power 
to  recognize  greatness  and  heroism  in  human 
character,  as  they  have  lost  the  faculty  of  rever- 
ence for  moral  grandeur. 

y^e  have  reached  a  state  of  things,  a  stage  in 
the  evolution  of  thought,  when  a  partial  change 
of  front  on  the  part  of  Christianity  is  necessary 
to  meet  the  forms  of  error  and  evil  which  have 
been  developed  under  the  new  conditions  of  so- 
ciety in  modern  times.  The  enthronement  of  the 
masses,  and  the  extension  of  man's  acquaintance 
with  the  physical  universe,  —  democracy  and  sci- 
ence, —  these  have  been  the  principal  agents  in 
the  production  of  a  new  environment  for  religion 
in  modern  life.  Some  considerable  changes  in 
relative  emphasis  in  Christian  teaching  are  im- 
peratively required  by  the  conditions  that  have 
been  developed  in  society  since  the  revival  of 
learning.  That  such  changes  will  some  time  be 
made  appears  to  me,  for  various  reasons,  probable. 
But  such  changes  are  never  wrought  by  Almighty 
power  operating  directly  and  without  human 
agency.  Neither  are  they  produced  by  "  the  re- 
sistless influence  of  the  laws  of  progress."     They 


PREA  CHING.  223 

have  hitherto  been  brought  about  very  slowly,  as 
the  result  of  many  small  movements  and  efforts  on 
the  part  of  religious  teachers,  and  of  other  persons 
interested  in  religion  and  in  human  welfare. 

Other-world  sanctions  have  to  a  great  extent 
lost  their  force  in  Christian  teaching,  and  in  the 
thought  both  of  Christians  and  of  the  people  out- 
side of  the  church.  The  influence  of  what  are 
called  the  miraculous  or  supernatural  facts  of 
Christian  history  has  also  less  potency  in  human 
thought  than  ever  before.  Neither  the  distant 
past  nor  the  distant  future  awes,  inspires,  or 
restrains  men  now  as  heretofore.  The  church 
will  be  obliged  to  recognize  these  changes.  The 
chief  line  or  method  of  advance  is  by  an  increased 
emphasis  upon  the  sanctions,  obligations,  and  ac- 
tivities belonging  to  this  world  and  to  the  moral 
life  of  the  present  time.  Heaven  can  wait.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  think  much  about  it  while  we 
have  strength  and  time  for  labor  here.  But  this 
world  ought  to  be  purified,  and  life  here  devel- 
oped, organized,  and  directed  in  obedience  to  the 
requirements  of  order  and  justice.  And  for  us  — 
for  Americans  —  this  world  means  our  own  coun- 
try. We  have  no  real  opportunity  or  relation 
with  hunfanity  in  general.  As  they  are  usually 
set  forth  in  the  phrases  of  sentimentalists,  the 
brotherhood  of  mankind  and  our  duty  to  human- 
ity are  abstractions  mthout  vital  meaning  or  prac- 
tical value.  We  have  most  vital  relations,  we 
have  boundless  opportunity,  with   the  people  of 


224  PREACHING. 

our  own  country.  We  need  the  influence  of  the 
strongest  emphasis  that  religion  can  give  to  our 
duties  as  citizens,  as  members  of  the  national 
family.  Religion  should  translate  the  idea  of  the 
brotherhood  of  man  into  the  idea  and  fact  of  the 
fraternity  of  the  people  of  our  country.  Right- 
eousness, justice,  order,  patriotism,  —  these  are 
the  principles  which  religion  should  henceforth 
emphasize  in  this  country.  If  Christianity  should 
come  to  mean  this  and  do  this,  it  would  regain  its 
lost  vitality  and  sovereignty;  it  would  be  again 
a  light  to  guide  and  a  law  to  govern  mankind. 

But  all  the  experience  of  the  past  makes  it  prob- 
able that  such  a  change  of  front  and  shifting  of 
relative  emphasis  on  the  part  of  Christianity  will 
not  be  accomplished  without  enormous  loss,  in- 
jury, and  moral  disintegration.  I  do  not  know 
how  much  of  this  might  be  prevented  if  a  few  of 
our  teachers  and  leaders  were  wise  enough  to 
begin  at  once  to  act  upon  the  lessons  which  time 
is  sure  to  teach ;  but  there  are  few  signs  of  such 
wisdom  among  us.  The  old  beliefs  are  losing 
their  power,  but  no  new  sanctions  of  equal  or 
adequate  vitality  are  taking  the  place  of  the  con- 
victions which  are  thus  perishing.  No  human 
power  can  prevent  this  decay  of  the  old  beliefs, 
and  no  wise  man  could  wish  to  hasten  it.  We 
need  now  insight  and  impulse  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  new  methods  and  forms  of  thought 
and  teaching,  and  the  new  ideas  of  life,  Avhich  are 
to  house  and  clothe,  feed  and  guide,  the  "  emanci- 


PREACHING.  226 

pated  "  but  untaught  multitudes,  who,  if  left  to 
themselves,  are  the  helpless,  predestined  prey  of 
the  delusions  always  ready  to  ravage  and  desolate 
the  life  of  a  race  or  generation  which  has  not  in- 
herited a  vital  and  adequate  religion. 

Probably  the  most  groundless  and  irrational  of 
the  teaching  of  our  time  is  that  of  the  "  liberal  " 
or  "  rationalistic  "  optimists,  who  insist  that  there 
is  no  loss  of  moral  vitality,  or  decay  of  religion 
itself,  in  this  wide-spread  breaking  down  of  the 
old  beliefs.  The  history  of  times  of  transition  in 
the  past  and  the  known  laws  of  mental  action  and 
social  change  should  lead  us  to  expect  a  long  pe- 
riod of  intellectual  bewilderment,  of  religious  and 
moral  disintegration  and  political  debasement. 
We  shall  probably  try  many  wasteful  and  hazard- 
ous experiments  ;  the  optimists  will  still  prophesy 
triumphantly ;  and  the  people  who  live  after  us 
may  learn,  if  we  do  not,  that  new  agencies  for  the 
education  of  the  people  are  indispensable,  and  a 
new  consecration  to  the  interests  and  objects  of 
our  national  life.  A  few  men  will  think  of  the 
flag  with  something  of  the  passionate  devotion 
with  which  men  formerly  thought  of  the  cross, 
and  will  transmit  their  high  ideal  to  their  children 
as  a  holy  trust,  to  be  guarded  and  enshrined  by 
each  succeeding  generation.  After  measureless 
toil  and  suffering,  it  may  be  found  that  Christian- 
ity has  made  a  partial  change  of^ront,  that  men 
in  this  land  have  again  a  religion,  and  that  civili- 
zation has  moved  forward  to  higher  grounds. 

15 


SINCERE   DEMAGOGY. 

I  HAVE  recently  had  much  conversation,  on 
subjects  connected  with  politics  and  our  national 
life  and  interests,  with  several  thoughtful  and 
earnest  men  in  two  of  the  principal  New  England 
States.  Some  of  them  are  laborers  in  cotton 
mills ;  some  are  manufacturers  and  capitalists ; 
others  are  farmers.  Some  are  possessors  of  con- 
siderable property,  and  live  in  easy  comfort,  if 
not  in  affluence  ;  others  are  very  poor.  There  is 
a  noticeable  agreement  of  ideas  or  convictions 
among  them  in  regard  to  some  problems  which 
are  becoming  more  and  more  important  for  the 
people  of  our  country.  I  asked  the  same  ques- 
tions of  these  representatives  of  various  classes  of 
my  fellow-citizens ;  and  the  absolute  identity,  not 
only  of  thought  or  belief,  but  of  the  forms  of  ex- 
pression, in  most  of  the  answers,  indicates,  I 
think,  a  pretty  thorough  indoctrination  by  the 
same  teachers  of  the  whole  school  or  party  holding 
these  sentiments.  I  give,  for  the  most  part,  my 
own  questions,  with  the  replies,  which  were  nearly 
the  same  from  all.  Much  of  the  language  is  re- 
ported exactly,  from  notes  made  while  we  talked. 
Some  slight  verbal  changes  were  necessary,  but 
the  meaning  is  given  as  accurately  as  possible 
throughout. 


SINCERE  DEMAGOGY.  227 

The  first  question  was,  usually,  "  Do  you  think 
the  condition  of  our  country  prosperous  and  en- 
couraging?" And  the  answer  was,  uniformly, 
"  Not  for  the  many,  the  mass  of  the  people. 
There  can  be  no  real  prosperity  for  our  country 
under  such  conditions  as  now  exist  for  laboring 
people." 

"  What  do  you  regard  as  the  chief  dangers  of 
our  country  ?  " 

"  Thei-e  are  two  great  dangers.  The  first  is  the 
aggregation  of  wealth  in  a  few  hands,  especially 
the  aggregation  of  wealth  in  the  possession  of 
large  corporations,  in  which  ambitious  and  un- 
scrupulous men  use  the  power  which  money  gives 
as  a  means  for  the  control  of  legislation  and  of 
public  thought  and  its  expression.  The  great 
moneyed  corporations,  or  a  few  rich  men  in  them, 
own  all  the  influential  newspapers,  and  they  allow 
no  thought  opposed  to  their  opinions  or  interests 
to  reach  the  people.  No  one  can  speak  for  the 
interests  of  the  people  except  through  a  few  fee- 
ble and  obscure  journals.  The  control  of  the 
great  moneyed  corporations  over  legislation  is,  in 
our  country,  almost  absolute." 

"  The  other  great  danger  is  the  growing  belief 
in  the  necessity  of  a  strong  government,  and  the 
fear,  even  in  the  minds  of  good  men,  that  the  peo- 
ple cannot  safely  be  trusted,  and  that  some  men 
must  be  kept  away  from  the  polls.  There  seems 
to  be  a  growing  tendency  in  the  minds  of  literary 
men  to  regard  universal  suffrage  as  a  failure,  and 


228  SINCERE  DEMAGOGY. 

to  wish  the  possession  of  the  ballot  to  be  confined 
to  a  more  select  body  tlian  the  whole  people.  It 
is  believed  that  the  history  of  republics  shows 
that  every  experiment  in  republican  government 
has  ended  in  an  aristocracy,  —  in  the  elevation  of 
a  few  men  to  complete  control ;  and  that  our  sys- 
tem must  have  the  same  result  and  end.  We  have 
already  made  some  changes  in  this  direction. 
The  cry  is  that  the  people  of  cities  are  not  fit  to 
govern  them.  There  is  a  strong  tendency  in  re- 
cent legislation  to  limit  the  right  of  suffrage  in 
the  name  of  political  purity." 

"  The  two  greatest  dangers  are  the  corruptions 
of  aggregated  wealth,  and  the  indisposition  to 
trust  the  whole  people  with  a  share  in  the  govern- 
ment." 

"  All  history  shows  that  the  many  have  never 
done  wrong  to  the  few,  but  the  few  have  often 
done  wrong  to  the  many.  All  legislation  by  the 
people  has  been  honest  and  fair  to  the  few.  His- 
tory acquaints  us  with  no  instance  to  the  con- 
trary." 

"  Delusions  never  seize  upon,  possess,  or  mis- 
lead the  many,  the  mass  of  the  people,  but  always 
have  their  development  and  mischievous  influence 
in  some  select  class,  —  among  persons  who  are, 
by  their  tastes  or  culture,  separated  from  the  mass 
of  the  people." 

"  When  a  particular,  select  body  or  class  of  men 
acquire  what  is  now  commonly  called  education 
(it  is  usually  partial  and  unpractical),  they  are 


SINCERE  DEMAGOGY.  229 

thereby  enabled  to  impose  their  theories  upon  the 
people,  thus  deluding  and  enslaving  the  masses 
for  the  aggrandizement  of  their  self-appointed 
guides.  Massachusetts  is,  in  gi*eater  degree  than 
any  other  part  of  our  countiy,  the  prey  of  delusions 
of  all  kinds,  as  she  has  more  of  what  is  called 
culture  than  any  other  State." 

"  But  is  not  education  or  culture  necessary  to 
fit  the  people  for  the  duties  of  citizenship,  espe- 
cially in  our  country,  where  problems  so  grave  and 
difficult  require  solution  ?  " 

"  There  is  already  sufficient  intelligence  in  the 
possession  of  the  mass  of  the  people  to  enable  them 
to  govern  wisely,  justly,  and  beneficently,  if  they 
■were  not  thwarted,  misled,  and  oppressed  by  the 
few.  The  people  go  wrong,  not  from  lack  of  in- 
telligence, but  from  being  deceived ;  and  in  this 
respect  things  are  growing  worse  in  our  country. 
The  people  do  not  think,  but  allow  editors  to 
think  for  them." 

"  What  can  we  do  to  hinder  or  prevent  the  ag- 
gregation of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  a  few  men, 
and  in  the  possession  of  great  corporations  ?  " 

"  When  the  fathers  formed  the  constitution  of 
our  country,  they  did  not  imagine  it  possible  that 
such  evils  or  abuses  could  ever  arise  under  its  op- 
eration. We  ought  to  have  laws  requiring  the  ab- 
solutely equal  division  of  estates,  at  the  death  of 
parents,  among  all  their  children.  We  should 
adopt  measures  looking  to  the  abolition  of  the 
corporate  possession  and  management  of  wealth." 


230  SINCERE  DEMAGOGY. 

"  All  moneyed  corporations  should  be  dissolved, 
and,  in  time,  their  charters  should  be  revoked. 
The  constitution  of  the  United  States  should  con- 
tain an  absolute  prohibition  of  national  corpora- 
tions." 

"  We  should  repeal  all  laws  that  limit  the  right 
of  suffrage  ;  should  make  the  ballot  absolutely  se- 
cret ;  and  should  give  the  ballot  to  every  man 
simply  because  he  is  a  man.  No  State  should 
have  power  to  limit  the  suffrage,  or  to  exclude 
any  class  of  men  from  the  exercise  of  this  sacred 
right." 

"  The  many  always  know  more  than  the  few 
about  every  subject  connected  with  the  science 
of  government  and  its  practical  working.  Any 
ten  thousand  men  know  more  than  any  one  man." 

"As  to  matters  of  national  finance,  we  would 
have  the  government  issue  all  the  currency  the 
people  need  in  the  form  of  paper  money.  Neither 
gold  nor  silver  should  hereafter  be  used  as  money. 
Our  financial  and  industrial  depression  is  the  re- 
sult of  our  having  reduced  everything  to  a  gold 
standard  of  value.  We  have  brought  everything 
to  a  low  value,  that  is,  we  have  destroyed  a  great 
part  of  the  wealth  of  the  country,  by  making  gold 
the  standard,  because  there  is  not  gold  enough  to 
go  around.  We  have  issued  only  enough  green- 
backs and  paper  money  to  produce  some  slight 
alleviation  of  our  difficulties." 

"  The  gold  standard  has  paralyzed  our  indus- 
tries.    Money  is  invested  by  hundreds  of  millions 


SINCERE  DEMAGOGY.  281 

in  bonds  at  a  low  rate  of  interest.  Nobody  can 
enguge  in  any  productive  industrial  enterprise. 
There  is  frightful  speculation  in  stocks  and  bonds 
of  worthless  companies,  but  nothing  is  undertaken 
that,  if  it  were  successful,  would  add  to  the  real 
wealth  of  the  country.  Money  is  put  into  four 
per  cent,  bonds,  because  the  gold  standard  has 
made  it  impossible  to  obtain  any  considerable 
profit  from  any  legitimate  business  or  industry." 

"  What  we  should  do  is  to  have  money  issued 
by  the  government  according  to  the  wants  of  the 
people.  The  government  pays  out  some  hundreds 
of  millions  of  dollars  each  year  to  the  people  who 
work  for  it,  —  to  soldiers  and  sailors,  to  clerks 
and  officers,  in  its  service.  Let  it  pay  them  in  its 
own  paper  money,  which  shall  be  used  for  all  pur- 
poses for  which  money  is  needed,  and  shall  be  the 
only  money  of  the  country.  Our  opponents  as- 
sert that  we  wish  the  government  to  give  money 
to  the  people  without  equivalent  or  service  from 
them,  but  this  is  not  true." 

"  Money  should  be  made  of  some  material  which 
has  no  intrinsic  value,  so  that  it  cannot  be  made 
an  article  of  commerce.  Its  sole  value  should  con- 
sist in  the  government  stamp  upon  it." 

"  The  government  should  derive  all  its  revenues 
from  direct  taxation,  chiefly  from  the  taxation  of 
incomes,  with  taxes  on  tobacco,  whisky,  and  other 
articles  of  luxury." 

"  Would  you  permit  unlimited  immigration 
from  all  parts  of  the  world  to  our  country." 


232  SINCERE  DEMAGOGY. 

"  Yes  ;  let  everybody  come  who  comes  freely 
and  of  his  own  motion.  All  our  troubles  connected 
with  immigration  have  resulted  from  imported 
labor,  as  in  the  case  of  tlie  negroes  and  the  Chi- 
nese. But  those  who  are  influenced  by  their  own 
judgment  to  seek  better  opportunities  for  them- 
selves and  their  children  will  benefit  our  country, 
not  injure  it." 

"  Is  there  no  danger  of  our  country's  being  over- 
crowded ?  " 

"  No  ;  we  have  room  and  ample  means  of  sup- 
port for  five  hundred  millions  of  people  in  this 
country.  Our  having  assimilated  so  many  races 
here,  mingling  the  blood  of  all  the  principal  na- 
tions of  the  world,  is  one  of  the  chief  causes  of 
our  superiority  over  all  other  countries  and  their 
people." 

"  Then  you  think  Americans  are  superior  to  all 
other  nations  ?  " 

"  Undoubtedly.  We  are  developing  a  higher 
type  of  manhood  than  has  ever  existed  anywhere. 
Americans  are  more  conscientious  than  any  other 
people.  The  average  intellectual  character  of  our 
people  is  much  higher  and  better  than  it  was  a 
hundred  years  ago.  Our  national  morality  is  im- 
proving." 

"  How  would  you  have  the  railroads  of  the 
country  managed  ?  " 

"  We  should  break  up  the  corporations,  and 
the  railroads  should  be  owned  by  the  government. 
They   should   be   made   common   highways,   and 


SINCERE  DEMAGOGY.  233 

every  man  who  might  wish  to  put  a  car  on  the 
road,  and  engage  in  the  business  of  transporting 
freight  or  passengers,  should  be  permitted  to  do 
so,  under  suitable  regulations.  The  roads  should 
be  supported  by  taxation,  if  necessary.  It  is  ab- 
surd to  say  that  a  navigable  river  is  a  public  high- 
way, and  belongs  to  the  people,  while  a  railroad 
which  runs  by  the  side  of  the  river,  along  its  whole 
length,  cannot  be  a  common  highway,  but  must 
be  the  exclusive  possession  of  a  few  men  in  a 
chartered  corporation." 

"What  would  you  have  the  people  taught  in 
regard  to  morality,  or  the  ground  and  standard  of 
moral  obligation  ?  " 

"  Temperance,  industry,  and  probity  constitute 
all  the  morality  a  man  in  this  country  needs." 

"  Is  falsehood  ever  profitable  to  a  man  in  public 
life,  or  to  a  political  party  ?  " 

"  No  man  ever  succeeds  by  falsehood.  The 
man  who  uses  it  comes  to  an  end.  There  is  no 
political  success,  no  future,  for  a  man  or  a  political 
party  guilty  of  falsehood.  Frank  truthfulness  is 
wisdom  and  strength.  Pretense  and  concealment 
are  folly  and  weakness.  There  never  was  a  cause 
strong  enough,  or  good  enough,  to  sustain  the  in- 
jury of  lying  and  dishonesty  on  the  part  of  its 
supporters  or  advocates." 

"  What  are  your  wishes  in  regard  to  our  system 
of  public  education  ?  " 

"  We  would  not  make  much  change.  We  would 
require  every  child  to  go.  to  school,  but  would  not 


234  SINCERE  DEMAGOGY. 

teach  a  little  of  everything,  as  is  done  now.  We 
would  make  education  more  practical,  and  more 
thorough  in  the  branches  of  knowledge  which 
would  benefit  the  common  people." 

"  Are  your  people  generally  optimists  ?  Are 
yo|j  hopeful  about  our  country's  near  future  ?  " 

"  We  are  growing  worse  as  to  the  impoverish- 
ment of  the  people.  We  have  a  greater  number 
of  men  now  who  are  enormously  rich  than  ever 
before.  These  great  aggregations  of  wealth  make 
extreme  poverty  inevitable  for  the  mass  of  the 
people.  We  do  not  expect  speedy  improvement. 
Perhaps  there  will  have  to  be  a  great  uprising  of 
the  people  to  right  these  wrongs.  The  ballot  is 
the  remedy  for  every  evil  and  wrong  in  this  coun- 
tiy,  and  if  the  people  can  have  the  ballot  they 
will  make  everything  right.  But  if  the  ballot  is 
withheld  from  any  class,  the  people  may  take 
things  into  their  own  hands.  We  may  be  sure 
that  the  people  will  have  their  rights  in  one  way 
or  another." 

"What  kind  of  income  tax  would  you  ap- 
prove ?  " 

"We  should  tax  all  incomes,  large  and  small, 
at  the  same  rate.  But  we  should  define  income 
as  that  which  '  comes  in '  from  invested  wealth. 
The  earnings  of  labor  and  the  profits  on  the  busi- 
ness of  a  merchant  should  not  be  regarded  as  in- 
come. Dividends  received  for  money  which  is  no 
longer  in  the  owners'  hands,  which  are  paid  year 
after  year  to  men  who  do  nothing  to  earn  them, 


SINCERE  DEMAGOGY.  286 

should  be  taxed.  They  constitute  real  income. 
We  should  also  have  a  heavy  legacy  tax.  These 
arrangements  would  enable  us  to  tax  the  income 
from  bonds  of  eveiy  kind  and  class." 

"  Great  accumulations  of  property  in  a  few 
hands  caused  the  downfall  of  Rome,  and  are  now 
the  worst  curse  of  England.  How  soon  the  peo- 
ple may  see  these  things,  and  assert  their  rights,* 
nobody  can  tell,  but  all  these  reforms  must  come 
in  time.  There  will  probably  be  a  great  deal  of 
trouble  before  the  people  open  their  eyes  and  take 
possession  of  their  rights.  At  present  the  country 
is  not  proceeding  or  acting  upon  any  rational  sys- 
tem or  method  ;  we  are  merely  stumbling,  and 
tumbling,  and  wallowing  along." 

"  What  can  be  done  to  give  the  people  greater 
advantages  in  connection  with  journalism  ?  " 

"  We  hope  for  electrical  printing ;  for  such  ad- 
vancements in  science  and  invention,  and  such  im- 
provements in  machinery,  as  will  make  printing 
so  cheap  that  everybody  can  enjoy  the  advantages 
and  opportunities  which  are  now  the  exclusive 
possession  of  the  very  rich.  There  is  no  limit  to 
what  science  may  do  for  us.  The  earth  is  made 
for  man,  and  all  the  powers  and  elements  of  nat- 
ure are  for  his  use  and  benefit.  There  is  abun- 
dant provision  for  all  human  wants,  if  nature's 
rich  gifts  are  not  monopolized  by  the  few  to  the 
exclusion  and  injury  of  the  many." 

"  Are  there  some  good  and  honest  men  who  op- 
pose you  and  your  doctrines  ?  " 


236  SINCERE  DEMAGOGY. 

"  On,  yes.  The  cultivated  men  do  not  believe 
in  the  people.  We  do.  We  trust  the  people. 
We  think  this  country  belongs  to  the  people,  and 
that  they  have  a  right  to  govern  it.  The  Harvard 
men  think  we  would  ruin  the  country,  but  we 
only  want  the  people  to  have  what  belongs  to 
them." 

"  But  would  not  your  doctrines  open  the  way 
to  frequent  and  radical  changes  of  our  system  of 
government,  and  thus  imperil  some  things  which 
are  of  great  importance,  —  some  things  which  are 
essential  to  our  free  institutions  and  our  national 
life?" 

"  The  very  essence  and  object  of  our  system  of 
government,  as  the  fathers  established  it,  is  that 
the  people  shall  govern,  and  shall  make  any 
changes  which  in  practice  or  experience  they  may 
see  to  be  necessary." 

Having  thus  reported  the  opinions  of  my  fel- 
low-citizens as  fully  as  possible  in  the  form  in 
which  they  were  expressed  in  conversation,  I  wish 
to  add  some  account  of  the  impressions  made  upon 
me  by  the  persons  themselves.  About  the  time 
of  the  close  of  our  great  civil  war,  or  a  little  be- 
fore, I  had  many  opportunities  of  becoming  ac- 
quainted with  ideas  and  sentiments  closely  resem- 
bling those  which  are  here  described ;  and  since 
that  time  it  bas  seemed  worth  while  to  study 
these  tendencies  and  products  of  the  intellectual 
life  of  our  country  directly,  to  converse  with  men 
of  all  classes  and  conditions  of  life  who  hold  these 


SINCERE  DEMAGOGY.  237 

opinions,  in  order  really  to  know  what  they  be- 
lieve and  seek,  and  upon  what  grounds  they  hold 
such  convictions  and  cherish  such  aims.  I  have 
not  adopted  the  judgment  of  their  enejpies,  or  that 
of  their  friends,  in  regard  to  the  doctrines  or  the 
character  of  these  men,  but  have  sought  to  obtain 
first  their  own  account  of  their  principles. 

I  think  these  men  are,  as  a  class,  thoroughly 
sincere  in  their  opinions  and  sentiments  regard- 
ing political  subjects.  They  honestly  believe  what 
they  profess,  upon  grounds  which  to  them  appear 
reasonable  and  sufficient.  They  manifest  greater 
earnestness,  or  intensity  of  conviction,  than  is  ex- 
hibited at  present  by  the  members  of  the  other 
political  parties  of  the  country.  This  may  result 
naturally  from  the  fact  that  their  party  has  never 
been  in  power,  and  that  they  are  in  consequence 
free  from  responsibility  for  the  mistakes  and  evils 
of  the  time.  They  are  likely  to  gain  more  and 
lose  less  than  others  by  a  frank  avowal  of  their 
aims,  even  by  the  bold  profession  of  doctrines 
which  are  generally  regarded  as  extrenae  and  dan- 
gerous. It  is  commonly  remarked  that  both  the 
old  political  parties  are  now  somewhat  wanting 
in  earnestness,  or  strength  of  conviction,  in  re- 
gard to  some  important  political  doctrines.  This 
is  natural,  and  in  a  way  inevitable,  because  both 
parties  are  manoeuvring  for  position  for  the  open- 
ing of  the  canvass  preceding  the  next  national 
elections.  Probably  the  party  managers  do  not 
greatly  care   upon  what   ground  the   contest  is 


238-  SINCERE  DEMAGOGY. 

waged,  if  tliey  can,  at  the  beginning  of  the  fray, 
secure  advantages  which  will  give  them  hope  of 
"breaking  the  enemy's  line,  and  throwing  his 
forces  into  confusion."  They  do  not,  on  either 
side,  quite  believe  the  dreadful  things  they  have 
been  saying  of  their  adversaries.  What  I  wish 
here  to  point  out  is  that,  while  this  manoeuvring 
and  the  want  of  moral  earnestness  which  it  reveals 
are,  under  the  circumstances,  inevitable,  and  re- 
quired by  the  necessities  of  political  warfare,  such 
tactics  have  certain  disadvantages  and  embar- 
rassments connected  with  them,  from  which  our 
friends  of  the  third  party  are  entirely  free.  Bold- 
ness and  frankness  are  elements  of  power  in  their 
appeal  to  the  people.  These  men  have  more 
of  sentiment  than  any  other  political  class,  and 
can  more  readily  and  successfully  appeal  to  "  the 
great  American  ideas  of  freedom  and  the  rights  of 
man."  They  are  the  natural  heirs  of  some  of  the 
heroic  elements  and  influences  which  formerly  be- 
longed to  the  attitude  of  the  anti-slavery  people. 
Upon  examination  this  will  be  found  a  matter  of 
considerable  practical  importance.  I  think  that 
our  fellow-citizens  of  this  class  may  be  said  to  be 
characterized  by  amiable  and  generous  qualities. 
They  are  usually  possessed  of  benevolent  disposi- 
tions and  strong  sympathies.  They  all  hold  ex- 
tremely hopeful  and  optimistic  views  of  human 
nature,  and  sincerely  believe  that  the  common 
people  are  sages,  saints,  and  heroes. 

As  to  their  thought  or  doctrines,  these  friends 


SINCERE  DEMAGOGY.  239 

of  ours  have  remarkably  clear  and  definite  ideas 
in  regard  to  the  objects  of  their  efforts,  and  the 
means  by  which  they  expect  to  attain  them.  They 
believe  that  nature  has  provided  abundantly  for 
the  watits  of  all  her  children,  that  the  earth 
rightly  belongs  to  the  people,  and  that  if  men 
were  not  wrongfully  deprived  of  their  heritage  all 
would  live  in  comfort.  Happiness  is  the  object 
of  human  life.  Man  has  a  natural  right  to  hap- 
piness, but  the  masses  are  robbed  of  their  rights 
by  the  misrule  and  oppression  of  the  few.  They 
believe  that  excessive  toil  is  one  of  the  chief 
causes  of  unhappiness  among  the  people,  and  they 
intend  to  shorten  the  hours  of  toil.  They  think 
that  the  labor  of  the  common  people  is  inad- 
equately paid,  and  that  the  capitalist  receives  far 
too  large  a  proportion  of  the  profits  of  labor,  and 
they  intend  to  transfer  a  considerable  proportion 
of  these  profits  to  the  laborer  himself.  They  be- 
lieve that  unhappiness  and  pain,  weariness  and 
poverty,  can  be  in  a  very  great  measure  abolished, 
and  they  mean  to  accomplish  this  by  reorganiz- 
ing society  under  the  rule  of  the  common  people. 
They  think  it  entirely  right  to  change  all  consti- 
tutional provisions  or  other  features  of  our  system 
of  government  which  are  found  to  obstruct  the 
will  of  the  people,  and  that  such  changes  should 
be  made  as  often  as  the  people  may  think  it  nec- 
essary, and  in  such  ways  as  the  people  may  pre- 
fer. 

These  friends  of  ours  believe  that  the  people, 


240  SINCERE  DEMAGOGY. 

as  they  are,  are  capable  of  governing  rightly  and 
wisely,  and  that  if  they  had  the  power  in  their 
hands  their  rule  would  always  be  just  and  benefi- 
cent. They  think  the  notion  that  there  is  any- 
thing very  difficult  in  the  science  of  government 
or  its  practical  administration,  which  requires  pe- 
culiar wisdom,  or  culture  superior  to  that  pos- 
sessed by  the  mass  of  the  people,  is  a  fiction,  an 
invention  of  the  oppressors  of  the  people,  by 
which  they  seek  to  strengthen  their  wrongful 
rule  over  the  masses.  They  hold  that  "  the  hearts 
of  the  people  are  always  right ;  "  that  the  people 
love  justice  with  a  passionate  and  enthusiastic 
worship,  that  they  are  superior  to  all  such  un- 
worthy and  injurious  passions  as  revenge,  greed, 
envy,  and  selfishness,  and  that  they  are  as  wise 
as  they  are  good  ;  that  the  best  dreams  and  ideals 
of  poets  and  prophets  are  realized  in  the  character 
of  the  common  people  of  our  country. 

In  conversing  with  my  countrymen  who  cherish 
these  sentiments  and  opinions,  I  am  constantly  re- 
minded of  Rousseau.  Their  ideas,  and  even  their , 
phrases  and  forms  of  expression,  are  often  identi- 
cal with  his.  I  quote  a  few  sentences  from  the 
"  ;femile  "  (Nugent's  translation,  London,  1763)  : 

"  Conscience  affords  greater  light  than  all  the 
philosophers  ;  we  have  no  occasion  to  read  Cicero's 
Offices  in  order  to  learn  to  be  honest."  (Vol.  ii. 
p.  271.) 

"  It  is  evident  to  the  last  degree  that  the  learned 
societies  of  Europe  are  no  more  than  public  schools 


SINCERE  DEMAGOGY.  241 

of  falsehood  ;  and  there  are  certainly  more  errors 
propagated  by  the  members  of  the  Academy  of 
Sciences  than  are  to  be  found  among  a  whole 
nation  of  savages."     (Vol.  i.  p.  304.) 

"  It  is  in  vain  that  we  aspire  at  liberty  under 
the  protection  of  the  laws.  Laws  I  Where  are 
they  ?  And  where  are  they  respected  ?  Wher- 
ever you  have  directed  your  steps,  you  have  seen 
concealed  under  this  sacred  name  nothing  but 
self-interest  and  human  passions.  But  the  eternal 
laws  of  nature  and  of  order  are  still  in  being. 
They  supply  the  place  of  positive  laws  in  the  eye 
of  the  man  of  prudence ;  they  are  written  in  the 
inmost  recess  of  his  heart  by  the  hands  of  reason 
and  conscience  ;  it  is  to  these  he  ought  to  submit 
in  order  to  be  free."     (Vol.  ii.  p.  392.) 

"  It  is  the  common  people  that  constitute  the 
bulk  of  mankind ;  the  rest  above  that  order  are 
so  few  in  number  that  they  are  not  worth  our 
consideration."     (Vol.  i.  p.  339.) 

"  You  should  therefore  respect  your  species : 
remember  that  it  is  essentially  composed  of  the 
common  people ;  that  if  all  the  kings  and  philoso- 
phers were  to  be  taken  away,  they  would  not  be 
missed,  and  affairs  would  be  conducted  as  well 
without  them."     (Vol.  i.  p.  341.) 

"  Were  we  to  divide  all  human  science  into  two 
parts,  one  common  to  the  generality  of  mankind, 
the  other  particular  to  the  learned,  the  latter 
would  be  very  trifling  compared  to  the  former." 
(Vol.  i.  p.  48.) 

16 


242  SINCERE  DEMAGOGY. 

It  is  not  probable  that  these  resemblances  of 
thought  and  language  proceed  from  familiarity  on 
the  part  of  my  friends  with  the  writings  of  Rous- 
seau. Few  of  them,  I  suppose,  have  read  any- 
thing from  his  pen.  Such  thoughts  and  ideas 
have  arisen  naturally  in  their  minds,  as  they  did 
in  his.  These  opinions  and  beliefs  regarding  the 
political  and  social  interests  and  relations  of  man- 
kind have  been  produced  or  developed  here  anew 
by  the  conditions  of  our  national  life.  If  we  con- 
sider the  circumsfemces  of  our  people,  their  edu- 
cation and  experience,  and  the  natural  and  neces- 
sary effect  of  democracy,  or  the  universal  suffrage 
arrangement  of  society,  I  think  we  must  expect  a 
general  development  of  such  doctrines  among  the 
masses,  and  that  the  influence  of  these  tendencies 
may  possibly  become  so  wide-spread  and  potent 
as  to  subject  our  system  of  government  and  the 
structure  of  society  in  this  country  to  a  very  con- 
siderable strain.  We  shall  not  understand  the 
causes,  direction,  or  power  of  these  ideas  while 
we  regard  their  development  and  career  among 
us  as  accidental  or  anomalous.  Their  appearance 
and  growth  result  from  causes  adequate  to  pro- 
duce them.  The  phenomena  attending  their  op- 
eration are  not  likely  to  be  so  transitory  as  to 
make  examination  difficult.  We  shall  probably 
have  time  to  study  them. 

Our  friends  appear  to  think  that  men  of  wealth 
and  culture  are  of  a  nature  essentially  different 
from  that  of  "  the  people."     They  always  speak 


SINCERE  DEMAGOGY.  243 

of  thera  as  belonging  to  a  different  class,  and  as 
being  inspired  by  motives,  passions,  and  princi- 
ples entirely  unlike  those  of  the  people.  They 
think  that  the  circumstances  and  position  of  men 
of  property  and  culture,  and  the  effect  of  the  sys- 
tem of  social  and  political  organization  under 
which  they  have  so  much  power,  necessarily  make 
them  selfish,  grasping,  unjust,  and  oppressive. 
They  are  convinced  that  there  is  no  reason  to 
hope  for  the  improvement  of  society  while  the 
men  of  wealth  and  culture  retain  control,  and 
are  therefore  determined  to  displace  them.  I  am 
obliged  to  say  that,  while  our  fellow-citizens  thus 
contemn  culture,  many  of  them  have  about  as 
much  of  what  now  goes  by  that  name  as  is  pos- 
sessed by  most  of  those  who  belong  to  the  "  cul- 
tivated classes."  So  in  regard  to  their  ideas  of 
wealth  :  they  think  it  dangerous  under  the  exist- 
ing system  and  order  of  things,  —  likely  to  pro- 
duce extreme  selfishness,  and  alienation  from  the 
cause  and  interests  of  the  people ;  yet  some  of 
them  are  themselves  capitalists,  and  possess  the 
means  of  enjoying  what  they  denounce  as  luxury 
when  it  is  exhibited  by  those  who  are  not  "  of  the 
people." 

It  is  curious  and  interesting  to  note  the  fre- 
quent resemblances  between  the  doctrines  which 
I  am  now  examining  and  the  fundamental  ideas 
and  assumptions  of  much  of  the  best  literature 
which  our  country  has  produced.  That  part  of 
our  national  literature  which  contains  the  direct 


244  SINCERE  DEMAGOGY. 

expression  of  opinions  in  regard  to  the  nature  of 
man,  the  principles  of  social  and  political  order, 
the  genius  of  our  institutions,  and  the  true  mean- 
ing and  mission  of  America  is  almost  all  intensely 
optimistic,  and  it  supplies  great  store  of  maxims 
and  arguments  of  the  highest  dignity  and  respec- 
tability, which  would  serve  as  most  convenient 
weapons  in  the  hands  of  our  friends  against  many 
features  of  the  existing  order  of  things. 

One  of  the  most  important  and  characteristic 
elements  of  influence  in  the  movement  which  I 
am  describing  is  to  be  found  in  the  ideas  regarding 
science  which  are  held  by  this  class  of  our  people, 
and  propagated  by  their  teachers.  They  expect 
a  millennium  of  universal  plenty  and  happiness, 
a  golden  age,  under  the  dominion  of  science.  No 
imaginable  invention  for  producing  food,  dispens- 
ing with  labor,  or  creating  wealth  appears  to 
them  impossible.  If  a  great  inventor  should  an- 
nounce that  he  had  discovered  a  method  by  which 
he  could  evolve  from  a  pail  of  water  power  suffi- 
cient to  drive  a  freight-train  from  New  York  to 
San  Francisco,  or  that  by  establishing  connections 
between  the  opposite  corners  of  a  square  league 
of  desert  and  the  poles  of  a  powerful  electrical 
battery  he  could  in  a  few  hours  change  the  barren 
sands  to  soil  of  matchless  fertility,  many  of  these 
friends  of  ours  would  say,  truthfully,  that  they 
had  long  expected  such  achievements.  Their 
faith  in  "  positive  and  negative  electricity '"  would 
scarcely   be   staggered   by  any  possible   story  of 


SINCERE  DEMAGOGY.  245 

miraculous  power  or  performance.  They  know 
of  no  reason  why  anything  which  they  would  like 
to  have  done  for  them  should  not  be  accomplished 
by  means  of  this  wonderful  natural  force ;  or,  in- 
deed, why  any  human  want  should  remain  unsup- 
plied.  Their  ideas  and  metliods  of  thought  in  re- 
gard to  science,  and  the  expectations  which  they 
cherish  respecting  the  deliverance  of  mankind 
from  the  necessity  of  toil  by  means  of  scientific 
invention  and  discovery,  are  becoming  important 
factors  in  our  political  and  social  conditions. 

I  have  observed  that  the  men  in  comfortable 
circumstances,  who  hold  these  doctrines,  usually 
appear  to  feel  but  little  personal  enmity  or  bitter- 
ness against  the  classes  whom  they  denounce. 
They  say  it  is  the  system  which  is  to  be  con- 
demned, rather  than  the  persons  who  sustain  or 
administer  it.  But  many  of  the  poorer  men  and 
laborers  seem  to  feel  a  degree  of  exultation  in  the 
prospect  of  the  overthrow  of  the  classes  who,  as 
they  declare,  have  so  long  oppi'essed  the  people. 
All  classes  of  believers  in  these  doctrines  are  con- 
vinced that  if  the  people  are  much  longer  thwarted 
and  oppressed  ;  if  the  ballot,  which  would  enable 
them  to  right  all  their  wrongs  by  peaceful  means, 
is  kept  out  of  their  hands,  or  its  effect  neutralized 
by  the  machinations  of  the  money  power,  then  the 
masses  will  rise  in  their  might,  and  crush  at  once 
the  system  which  is  the  source  of  their  adversity. 
Most  of  them  appear  to  feel  a  kind  of  sadness  in 
view  of  the  terrible  suffering  that  may  necessarily 


246  SINCERE  DEMAGOGY. 

precede  the  coronation  of  the  people,  but  they 
think  it  is  all  fated  and  inevitable.  This  mood, 
now  becoming  so  common,  is  one  in  which  many- 
things  are  possible. 

I  see  nothing  to  prevent  the  rise  of  a  leader  of 
this  class,  — of  a  hian  who,  despising  culture, 
shall  possess  as  much  of-  it  as  most  of  his  antag- 
onists, and,  while  denouncing  wealth  as  the  chief 
source  of  danger  to  the  liberties  of  the  people,  - 
shall  himself  be  rich ;  who,  holding  these  polit- 
ical and  social  doctrines  in  sincerit}^,  shall  advo- 
cate them  with  enthusiasm.  If  such  a  man  should 
appear,  and  should  add  to  these  means  of  influ- 
ence the  potency  of  attractive  social  qualities, 
great  kindness  of  heart,  readiness  of  resource, 
commanding  eloquence,  and  a  stainless  personal 
character,  it  may  be  that  under  such  circum- 
stances these  ideas  would  attract  more  serious  at- 
tention than  they  have  yet  received  from  our 
teachers  and  leaders. 

Some  of  the  opinions  and  sentiments  here  de- 
scribed appear  to  me  erroneous  and  untrustworthy. 
The  fundamental  doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of 
the  people,  for  instance,  as  taught  by  our  friends, 
is  but  the  old  doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of  kings 
in  a  new  form.  Its  essence  is  unchanged.  Un- 
der the  new  conditions  of  national  life  which  ac- 
company democracy,  or  result  from  it,  the  doc- 
trine means  the  divine  right  of  the  majority. 
And  as  the  believers  in  the  divinely  appointed  rule 
of  kings  hold  that  the  king  can  do  no  wrong,  we 


SINCERE  DEMAGOGY.  247 

are  witnessing  the  development,  under  democratic 
forms  of  government,  of  the  doctrine  that  the 
people —  that  is,  the  majority  —  can  do  no  wrong ; 
that  the  people  are  always  unselfish,  patriotic, 
and  incorruptible,  and  possessed  of  wisdom  ad- 
equate for  every  emergency,  rendering  injustice 
and  serious  error  impossible  under  their  sway. 
Now  this  doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of  a  ruling 
class,  and  its  supernatural  equipment  with  all 
needed  virtues,  is  a  crude  and  barbarous  concep- 
tion, belonging  naturally  to  the  prehistoric  or 
savage  conditions  of  society  under  which  it  had 
its  rise  and  development.  It  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  improved  by  presenting  it  in  its  mod- 
ern form,  in  association  with  democracy,  nor  can 
I  learn  that  any  new  reasons  or  arguments  have 
been  brought  forward  in  its  support. 

If  this  doctrine  is  true,  then  in  a  state  composed 
of  one  million  citizens,  divided  into  two  parties  by 
their  political  opinions,  five  hundred  and  ten  thou- 
sand men  might  constitute  the  party  of  the^  peo- 
ple. They  would  of  course  be  in  the  utmost  de- 
gree wise  and  just,  and  the  four  hundred  and 
ninety  thousand  opposed  to  them  would  be  un- 
wise, and  misled  by  dangerous  error,  if  they  were 
not  selfish  and  corrupt.  If  the  people  are  wise 
and  right,  those  opposed  to  them  must  be  foolish 
and  wrong.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  frequently 
happens  that  the  foolish  minority  is  able  to  con- 
vince and  win  over  a  small  portion  of  the  major- 
ity ;  and  then  the  minority,  without  any  change 


248  SINCERE  DEMAGOGY. 

of  principles,  character,  or  aims,  itself  becomes 
the  divinely  authorized  majority.  That  is,  those 
who  were  last  year  the  enemies  of  the  people  are 
now,  though  cherishing  the  same  purposes  which 
so  recently  made  them  dangerous  enemies  to  lib- 
erty, themselves  the  people,  and  the  only  true 
friends  of  freedom.  At  the  same  time,  some  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  men,  who  were  last  year 
members  of  the  wise  and  virtuous  majority,  though 
still  battling  as  earnestly  as  ever  in  support  of  the 
ideas  which  were  then  the  perfection  of  wisdom 
and  virtue,  now  constitute  a  deluded  minority, 
and  are  the  only  "enemies  of  the  people."  No, 
friends,  majorities  are  often  wrong.  The  people 
are  sometimes  in  error  in  regard  to  very  impor- 
tant practical  matters.  They  are  sometimes  iU 
informed  and  influenced  by  prejudice  and  passion, 
and  are  consequently  unjust.  There  was  a  time 
when  the  people  believed  that  the  sun  went  around 
the  earth  every  day.  It  is  most  probable  that 
for  ages  the  whole  human  race  believed  human 
sacrifices  to  be  right.  If  the  people  are  right  to- 
day, they  must  often  have  been  wrong  in  the 
past,  for  they  have  changed  their  beliefs  again 
and  again  under  the  influence  of  advancing  cult- 
ure. Though  they  may  be  wiser  than  ever  be- 
fore, there  is  nothing  to  support  the  assumption 
that  they  have  become  infallible.  The  theory 
that  the  dominion  of  the  people  will  secure  man- 
kind against  all  dangerous  error,  and  abolish  the 
evils  which  now  afl&ict  society  and  imperil  civiliza- 
tion, is  a  couYenient  fiction. 


SINCERE  DEMAGOGY.  249 

Is  it  true  that  "  any  ten  thousand  men  always 
know  more  than  any  one  man  "  ?  If  one  man 
were  instructed  in  navigation,  would  he  not  know 
more  about  it  than  ten  thousand  men  who  had 
never  seen  a  boat,  or  water  enough  to  float  it  ? 
A  similar  question  might  be  asked  in  regard  to 
the  art  of  printing,  the  science  of  chemistry,  the 
profession  of  law,  and  many  other  things.  Does 
not  any  one  man  who  can  speak,  write,  and  teach 
the  German  language  correctly  know  more  about 
it  than  any  million  of  men  who  have  never  heard 
or  seen  a  word  of  it?  The  art  of  government, 
of  organizing  the  life  of  a  nation  and  adminis- 
tering its  affairs,  is  not  the  simple  and  easy  task 
which  our  friends  assume  it  to  be ;  it  must  rather 
be  one  of  the  most  complex  and  difficult  of  hu- 
man achievements.  To  persuade  the  persons  who 
are  intrusted  with  the  government  of  a  coun- 
try like  ours  that  their  work  requires  no  serious 
preparation  or  sense  of  responsibility  is  to  prop- 
agate a  most  dangerous  delusion. 

Our  friends  regard  the  production  and  perpet- 
uation of  wealth  as  being  due  almost  entirely  to 
labor.  They  often  say  that  laboring  men  —  as 
distinct  from  the  class  of  capitalists  and  cultivated 
people — have  created  the  wealth  of  the  country, 
and  it  is  sometimes  added  that  it  justly  belongs 
to  them.  The  working  people  do  not  generally 
understand  how  much  the  production  and  exist- 
ence of  wealth  depend  upon  other  elements  than 
mere  muscular  exertion.     They  do  not  appreciate 


250  SINCERE  DEMAGOGY. 

the  part  which  is  performed  by  cultivated  men 
and  capitalists  in  organizing  and  equipping  busi- 
ness enterprises,  in  adapting  production  to  the 
markets  of  the  world,  and  in  so  directing  the 
labor  of  multitudes  of  men  and  the  use  of  costly 
machinery  as  not  to  impair  the  capital  invested. 
They  do  not  even  understand  clearly  that  the  de- 
struction of  capital  ruins  the  laborers  of  the  coun- 
try by  destroying  the  business  which  gives  them 
employment.  Many  laborers  think  they  are  in 
some  way  benefited  by  all  the  losses  sustained  by 
capitalists.  Wealth  is  not  so  stable  or  permanent 
as  our  friends  believe.  It  is  of  a  sensitive  nature, 
and  does  not  bear  rough  handling.  It  is  easy  to 
destroy  the  value  of  any  kind  of  property  or  in- 
vestment by  injurious  legislation  or  mischievous 
municipal  administration.  But  many  men  believe 
that  by  means  of  legislation  "  in  the  interests  of 
labor,"  and  by  severe  taxation,  most  of  the  wealth 
now  in  the  possession  of  rich  men  and  corpora- 
tions can  be  transferred,  without  impairment,  to 
the  hands  of  the  working  people.  I  think  the 
actual  result,  if  their  plans  could  be  carried  out, 
would  be  the  gradual  annihilation  and  expulsion 
of  the  wealth  of  the  country.  There  would  no 
longer  be  any  disparity  of  conditions  between  rich 
and  poor,  because  all  would  be  poor  alike.  Our 
organized  industries  would  be  destroyed.  All  ma- 
chinery which  requires  the  cooperation  of  many 
laborers  would  be  disused,  and  we  should  be 
obliged  to  return  to  the  conditions  and  methods 


SINCERE  DEMAGOGY.  251 

of  life  of  the  days  before  the  introduction  of  im- 
proved labor-saving  machinery,  when  the  people 
of  our  country  depended  almost  wholly  upon  agri- 
culture and  such  manufactures  as  could  be  carried 
on  in  their  homes.  The  world's  wealth  will  not 
be  perpetuated  or  reproduced  if  the  essential  con- 
ditions under  which  it  has  been  created  are  de- 
stroyed. 

Might  does  not  make  right  or  justice  on  the 
side  of  the  people,  any  more  than  on  that  of  the 
tyrannical  few  who  are  regarded  as  their  oppress- 
ors. Excessive  taxation  is  robbery,  though  the 
guilt  and  dishonor  of  it  may  be  distributed  among 
millions  of  voters.  When  the  people  make  a  law 
which  compels  the  capitalists  of  a  city  to  deliver 
up  their  wealth  at  the  doors  of  the  city  treasury, 
for  distribution  among  the  laborers  of  the  mu- 
nicipality, in  the  form  of  unnecessary  and  dishon- 
est appiopriations  for  improvements,  the  act  is 
not  more  honest  because  committed  by  the  people 
under  the  forms  of  law.  It  is  not  wise  to  teach 
the  people  of  our  country  that  nothing  in  their 
political  action  can  be  wrong  or  unjust ;  that  rob- 
bery and  injustice  are  to  be  accounted  right  when 
perpetrated  by  the  majority  by  means  of  the  bal- 
lot. 

The  beliefs  of  our  friends  regarding  Nature  or 
Providence,  and  the  attainable  objects  and  ideals 
of  human  life,  are  natural  in  the  earlier  stages  of 
mental  and  social  development.  They  are  the 
products  of  subjective  conditions,  of  what  people 


252  SINCERE  DEMAGOGY. 

call  their  own  intuitions.  Strong  and  passionate 
desires,  uncbastened  by  reason  or  experience,  are 
regarded  as  evidence  tiiat  whatever  they  crave  has 
been  specially  created  for  their  gratification.  It 
is  held  that  *'  men  have  a  right  to  be  happy,  have 
a  right  to  the  possession  of  whatever  will  satisfy 
their  nature."  Here,  again,  our  friends  are  in 
error  in  regarding  the  order  of  human  life,  or  the 
system  of  universal  being,  as  something  extremely 
simple  and  transparent.  It  is  not  so  easily  ex- 
plicable. We  are  of  such  a  nature  that  we  want 
many  things,  but  I  cannot  find  that  there  is  any 
pr&vision  or  arrangement  in  the  order  or  laws  of 
nature  for  our  having  whatever  we  want.  Much 
of  the  popular  teaching  about  the  wise  and  benefi- 
cent adaptation  of  evex-ything  to  everything  else 
in  the  universe,  the  relation  between  all  natural 
wants  and  the  means  for  satisfying  them,  and  the 
wonderful  economies  of  Nature  rendering  waste 
and  failure  impossible  in  her  domain,  is  pure  as- 
sumption, and  will  not  bear  examination.  We  do 
not  really  know  so  much  about  these  matters  as 
many  people  suppose.  Whether  we  talk  of  the 
bounty  of  Nature  or  the  wisdom  and  goodness  of 
God,  the  difficulties  are  the  same.  The  subject 
is  too  deep  for  us.  It  is  pleasant  and  comfortable 
to  believe  that  everything  is  made  for  our  hap- 
piness, and  that  the  universe  is  pervaded  and 
controlled  by  a  wise  and  omnipotent  tenderness. 
But  as  a  matter  of  experience  and  fact,  there  is 
measureless  pain  in  the  world,  failure  and  cruelty, 


SINCERE  DEMAGOGY.  253 

hideous  and  uncompensated  wrong  and  suffering. 
Life  is  a  stern,  hard  service,  and  the  wisest  and 
noblest  have  learned  to  think  httle  about  happi- 
ness, and  to  give  their  strengtli  to  the  work  of  the 
day,  because  "  the  night  cometh,  when  no  man 
can  work."  I  have  myself  tried  living  for  happi- 
ness, and  have  found  that  the  effort,  even  when 
successful,  tends  to  disintegration  and  chaos.  My 
observation  of  the  lives  of  others  convinces  me 
that  these  doctrines  which  lead  men  to  feel  that 
they  have  a  right  to  be  happy,  and  that  they  are 
wronged  and  oppressed  unless  they  have  every- 
thing they  want,  are  the  result  of  defective  analy- 
sis. The  people  who  hold  this  philosophy  of  life 
are  sincere,  but  their  thinking  is  erroneous.  It 
does  not  follow  that  we  are  to  make  no  effort  for 
the  deliverance  of  mankind  from  injustice  and 
oppression.  To  right  what  is  wrong,  and  im- 
prove the  conditions  of  human  life,  is  the  noblest 
work  to  which  we  can  give  our  hearts  in  this 
world.  But  our  friends  of  whom  I  am  now  writ- 
ing fail  in  large  measure,  and  injure  their  own 
work,  because  they  have  not  given  sufficient  at- 
tention or  patience  to  the  endeavor  to  understand 
the  difficulties  that  lie  in  our  way.  It  is  not  so 
easy  as  they  think  to  know  what  are  the  best 
means  for  bringing  about  the  changes  which  all 
good  men  should  desire  to  see  accomplished. 
Our  friends  especially  need  more  knowledge,  in 
order  to  be  able  to  discriminate  truly  between 
objects  that  are  really  desirable  and  attainable 


254  SINCERE  DEMAGOGY. 

and  those  which  human  passion  naturally  craves 
in  its  early,  "  unchartered  freedom,"  but  which 
are  either  impossible  of  attainment,  or  of  a  nat- 
ure to  cause  injury  and  loss  when  attained. 

This  brings  me  to  the  error  of  our  friends  in 
rejecting  and  denouncing  culture.  They  might 
do  good  by  exposing  what  is  crude,  superficial, 
and  unpractical  in  what  goes  by  the  name  of 
culture,  and  by  expressing  their  sense  of  the 
need  of  something  better.  If  the  working  peo- 
ple would  thoughtfully  try  to  understand  what 
is  defective  in  the  education  of  their  class,  and 
would  give  their  countrymen  their  judgment  re- 
garding what  is  most  needed  for  the  equipment 
of  their  own  children  for  their  place  and  work  in 
life,  it  would  be  a  valuable  service.  If  the  state 
undertakes  the  education  of  the  children  of  the 
people,  as  it  does  in  this  country,  I  think  the 
working  men  have  a  right  to  claim  for  their 
children  the  best  education  the  state  can  give; 
that  is,  such  an  education  as  will  in  the  largest 
measure  possible  fit  them  for  the  work  and  expe- 
rience of  their  life.  The  people  of  our  country, 
without  exception  or  distinction  of  classes,  need 
more  knowledge  and  better  education.  The  peo- 
ple of  wealth  and  culture  have  much  to  learn  and 
to  do.  They  do  not  yet  understand  how  insecure 
is  their  own  position.  They  have  little  real  knowl- 
edge of  the  new  conditions  of  society  in  this  coun- 
try. The  people  of  whom  I  have  here  written 
are  not  wholly  wrong.     They  have  some  measure 


SINCERE  DEMAGOGY.  255 

of  truth  and  right  on  their  side,  some  reason  for 
discontent.  Our  politics  are  deficient  in  patriot- 
ism, and  our  partisan  leaders  have  too  little  inter- 
est in  the  welfare  and  guidance  of  the  people. 
The  people  of  wealth  and  culture  need  a  closer 
acquaintance  and  association  with  the  working 
people  and  the  poor.  They  generally  lack  some- 
thing of  the  fraternal  spirit  which  they  should  feel, 
but  they  are  especially  wanting  in  the  manifesta- 
tion or  expression  of  such  kindly  and  fraternal  feel- 
ings as  they  really  have  in  their  hearts.  The 
workingmen  misapprehend  the  people  of  wealth 
and  culture.  There  is,  indeed,  mutual  misappre- 
hension and  want  of  acquaintance  between  the 
working  people  and  their  employers.  If  the  opin- 
ions of  the  masses  are  wrong  and  their  aims  im- 
practicable, it  is  worth  while  to  do  far  more  than 
has  yet  been  done  in  this  country  to  show  them 
how  they  are  wrong,  and  to  teach  them  what- 
ever fundamental  principles  are  available  for 
their  guidance.  There  is  too  much  impatience 
shown  by  many  of  our  writers  and  leaders  because 
the  masses  do  not  learn  more  rapidly,  are  so  per- 
sistently wrong-headed,  etc.  What  is  the  value, 
after  all,  of  the  culture  which  qualifies  us  to  dis- 
pute learnedly  regarding  the  chief  social  and  polit- 
ical tendencies  of  the  people  of  ancient  Greece  and 
Rome  at  every  period  of  their  history,  but  does 
not  equip  us  for  any  real  study  of  the  life  of  our 
own  time  and  country,  nor  enable  us  to  understand 
the  growth  of  destructive  tendencies  in  the  society 


256  SINCERE  DEMAGOGY. 

of  which  we  are  members  ?  It  is  most  mischiev- 
ous to  assume,  as  is  constantly  done  on  both  sides, 
that  some  of  the  different  classes  of  our  people  are 
already  so  completely  separate  and  distinct  that  it 
is  next  to  impossible  for  them  to  understand  or  in- 
fluence one  another.  It  is  the  assumption  of  those 
who -are  too  indolent  to  study  the  facts  of  our  cbn- 
dition.  The  cultivated  people  have  not  yet  made 
a  tithe  of  the  effort  to  teach  the  working  classes 
which  is  necessary  to  prove  whether  they  can  be 
taught  or  not.  There  is  great  unteachableness, 
not  only  among  the  working  people,  but  in  the  cul- 
tivated classes ;  yet  no  large  class  in  this  country 
is  hopelessly  inaccessible  to  teaching,  or  insuscep- 
tible of  guidance.  (Could  not  something  be  done 
in  the  way  of  increased  publicit}'  on  the  part  of 
their  managers  regarding  the  essential  features, 
methods,  and  conditions  of  the  great  business  and 
manufacturing  enterprises  of  the  country,  so  that 
workmen  could  better  understand  the  justice  and 
necessity  of  the  course  of  action  pursued  by  their 
employers  ?) 

It  is  somewhat  strange  and  ominous  that  so 
many  cultivated  people  should  insist,  apparently 
with  a  degree  of  pride,  that  they  are  themselves  in- 
capable of  addressing  the  working  people  so  as  to 
be  understood  by  them ;  that  they  have  no  power 
to  establish  such  relations  with  them  as  would 
enable  them  to  influence  their  opinions.  When, 
a  few  months  ago,  I  suggested  —  with  other  meas- 
ures for  producing  a  better  understanding  between 


SINCERE  DEMAGOGY.  257 

the  different  classes  in  our  country  —  the  publi- 
cation, by  those  who  believe  in  property  and  in 
culture,  of  a  good,  low-priced  newspaper  for  cir- 
culation among  workingmen,  there  were  emphatic 
protests  from  prominent  journalists,  who  assured 
me  that  a  newspaper  dealing  with  the  life  and 
wants  of  operatives,  if  edited  by  capitalists,  man- 
ufacturers, and  cultivated  people,  would  certainly 
fail  of  influence  among  the  class  whom  it  would 
be  designed  to  benefit,  for  the  reason  that  their  in- 
evitable aversion  to  everything  bearing  the  stamp 
of  capital  would  strangle  the  well-meant  enter- 
prise at  its  birth.  This  indicates  want  of  ac- 
quaintance, on  the  part  of  such  writers,  with  the 
feelings,  spirit,  and  character  of  our  working  peo- 
ple. There  is  not  yet  any  such  incurable  aliena- 
tion and  hostility  between  the  workingmen  and 
their  employers,  the  capitalists  of  the  country. 
There  is  much  misunderstanding,  and  some  of 
the  facts  of  our  condition  are  gravely  unfavora- 
ble; but  they  do  not  by  any  means  sustain  the 
despairing  conclusion  that  no  direct  effort  to  en- 
lighten and  convince  the  workingmen  would  be  of 
any  avail.  My  own  opinion  is  ttiat  the  working- 
men  are,  as  a  class,  quite  as  accessible  to  teaching 
or  enlightenment  as  our  cultivated  optimists. 

In  endeavoring  to  understand  the  spread  of 
false  and  hurtful  ideas  among  the  workingmen, 
we  observe,  first,  that  these  beliefs  arise  naturally 
and  legitimately  in  many  minds  under  such  con- 
ditions  as   have  prevailed  here  during   the  last 

17 


258  SINCERE  DEMAGOGY. 

eighteen  years.  In  the  next  place,  we  should 
recognize  the  fact  tliat  many  persons  have  de- 
voted themselves  with  remarkable  zeal,  energy, 
and  success  to  the  propagation  and  inculcation  of 
these  opinions  and  sentiments.  The  chief  remain- 
ing feature  in  the  matter  is  the  entire  absence  of 
corresponding  or  adequate  activity  on  the  part  of 
those  who  should  feel  most  interest  in  preserving 
and  extending  whatever  is  valuable  in  the  results 
of  our  civilization.  In  tliis  inaction,  this  want  of 
cooperation  and  of  direct  effort  for  the  propaga- 
tion of  their  own  convictions,  on  the  part  of  those 
who  believe  in  property  and  culture,  and  in  the 
value  and  necessity  of  constitutional  government, 
is  the  chief  source  of  danger  for  our  country.  All 
these  interests  are  seriously  imperiled,  not  alone 
by  the  ideas  of  the  working  class,  but  by  the  gen- 
eral operation  of  disintegrating  influences  in  our 
society,  and  by  the  want  of  better  training  and 
principles,  and  higher  character,  among  all  classes 
of  our  population.  The  dainty  and  querulous 
tone  of  many  who  should  be  among  the  teachers 
and  leaders  of  our  time  shows  that  the  disorgan- 
izing influences  of  the  age  are  already  affecting 
the  cultivated  classes,  and  diminishing  our  na- 
tional vitality. 

There  is  great  need  of  wise  and  effective  resist- 
ance to  the  attack  upon  constitutional  government. 
Most  of  our  people  need  a  better  understanding  of 
the  necessity  of  some  accepted  principles  and  sys- 
tem of  national  organization  and  administration, 


SINCERE  DEMAGOGY.  259 

which  shall  not  be  subject  to  change  at  every  elec- 
tion. Some  of  the  strongest  tendencies  of  the 
time  lead  in  the  direction  of  the  absolute  empire 
of  the  majority,  witliout  restriction  or  limitation 
from  any  source  whatever,  —  the  rule  of  the  ca- 
price of  the  hour,  and  the  entire  repudiation  of  all 
precedents,  pledges,  charters,  and  constitutional 
regulations  and  provisions.  We  have  adopted  uni- 
versal suffrage  to  begin  with,  and  now  we  must 
prepare  for  it  afterward.  The  essential  and  dis- 
tinguishing feature  of  our  system  is  that  it  is  gov- 
ernment by  the  people.  But  the  mere  adoption 
of  this  system  of  government  does  not  confer 
upon  the  people  the  wisdom  which  they  need  for 
its  administration.  That  must  be  obtained  by 
other  means.  Our  system  was  not  devised  by  its 
founders  to  introduce  and  maintain  the  absolute 
and  tyrannical  rule  of  mere  majorities,  though 
this  view  of  its  purpose  and  character  is  now 
urged  with  great  vehemence.  It  was  meant  that 
changes  in  our  political  methods  should  be  made 
slowly,  and  that  they  should  not  extend  so  far  as 
to  destroy  the  organic  character  of  the  national 
government.  , 

If  the  people  who  do  not  approve  the  doctrines 
I  have  here  described  are  in  earnest,  it  is  neces- 
sary that  they  should  learn  to  address  the  masses. 
Those  who  believe  that  property  and  culture  are 
essential  to  our  civilization  must  present  their 
case.  They  and  their  interests  are  on  trial,  and 
it  is  time  for  them  to  plead  the  cause  of  what  they 


260  SINCERE  DEMAGOGY. 

most  value.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  extreme  diffi-. 
culty.  Surely  our  cultivated  men  should  be  able 
to  speak  intelligibly  to  the  whole  nation  and  to 
every  class  it  contains.  To  admit  that  capitalists 
and  cultivated  men  cannot  gain  the  attention  and 
confidence  of  the  workingmen  implies  distrust  of 
the  justice  and  reasonableness  of  the  principles 
and  position  of  the  conservative  class.  Americans 
who  feel  that  their  cause  is  a  righteous  one  should 
not  fear  to  speak  for  it  before  their  own  country- 
men. I  have  had  considerable  experience  in  writ- 
ing for  the  working  people  to  read,  and  have 
found  that  they  can  understand  plain  speaking 
and  sincerity.  If  I  had  the  money  required  for 
such  an  enterprise,  I  should  at  once  proceed  to 
establish  such  a  newspaper  as  I  have  recom- 
mended. What  we  most  need  cannot  be  accom- 
plished by  ordinary  political  journalism,  though 
political  parties  are  necessary  and  useful.  The 
need  of  the  time  is  the  education  of  the  people 
in  the  principles  and  duties  of  American  citizen- 
ship and  fraternit3\  I  have  not  attempted  a  com- 
plete examination  of  these  subjects,  —  that  is  a 
work  for  the  people  of  our  country^  but  I  have 
hoped  to  bring  about  a  more  general  and  thorough 
discussion  of  these  questions  of  the  time.  I  am 
not  devoted  to  any  particular  plans  or  measures 
for  improvement.  I  should  be  glad  to  see  each  of 
my  suggestions  set  aside  for  something  better. 


HN 
6U 

H3 


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